"  MUCH  of  the  charm  of  '  Three  Loving  Ladies  '  lies 
in  the  rare  artistry,  witty  and  humorous,  of  its  dia- 
logue and  descriptions  which  reveal  character.  Her 
most  happy  effects  reveal  powers  to  which  modern 
novelists  seem  for  the  most  part  to  be  indifferent; 
to  be  compared  more  justly  with  polished,  gay  fin- 
ish of  Jane  Austen.  One  and  all  are  conspicuously 
vital,  firmly  realized  and  presented  with  an  easy 
and  dramatic  touch.  We  are  inter  »sted  in  every  one 
because  they  reveal  men  and  I  — Birmingham 
Post. 

"  Mrs.  Dowdall  writes  the  kind  c  books  that  Jane 
Welsh  Carlisle  might  have  written  had  she  married 
a  decent  man  of  business  and  b  'gotten  a  pair  of 
children  of  her  own.  .  .  .  She  ip  honest  as  Arnold 
Bennet  would  like  to  be,  .  .  .  Slu  'an  turn  observa- 
tions into  print  without  missing  a  stroke.  She  can 
make  cold  type  mimic  sounds  till  the  pages  purr."  — 
Liverpool  Courier. 

"  Mrs.  Dowdall  is  a  writer  whose  work  I  look  for- 
ward to  with  immense  and  unholy  glee.  She  wan- 
ders through  the  world  apart  from  it,  yet  always 
keeping  a  glinting  eye  on  its  funny  side.  And  its 
funny  side  is  of  course  that  side  which  everybody 
takes  most  seriously."  —  The  Taller. 


THREE    LOVING   LADIES 


.  o». 


THREE    LOVING 
LADIES 

By 
THE  HON.  MRS.  DOWDALL 

v  ~ 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFL1N  COMPANY 

1921 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


TO 

KATIE    BURRILL 


THREE    LOVING    LADIES 


CHAPTER   I 

MESSRS.  BURRIDGE  and  Go's  pantechnicons  bumped 
majestically  along  the  streets  of  Millport  early  in  the 
morning.  Mud  seemed  to  be  unaccountably  falling 
from  the  sky  through  a  close  filter  of  smoke  draped 
high  above  the  town  ;  for  although  there  was  no  fog, 
the  great  stucco  offices  on  either  side  of  the  street 
were  slimy  with  coffee-coloured  moisture,  and  the 
people  who  hurried  along  looked  cold  and  slippery, 
like  panic-stricken  snails  compelled  to  leave  their 
shelters.  The  same  mysterious  mud  oozed  also 
from  below  the  paving  stones,  and  would  continue  to 
ooze  long  after  the  sun  had  penetrated  the  smoke 
filter  and  made  the  houses  and  the  pedestrians 
comparatively  dry. 

Millport  is  one  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  empire, 
and  one  of  the  richest.  I  have  never  heard  of  any- 
one living  there  for  choice,  or  for  any  reason  but  an 
alleged  opportunity  for  making  money.  Those  who 
settle  there  are  hi  the  habit  of  transplanting  them- 
selves at  regular  intervals ;  removing  to  a  house 
further  away  from  the  premises  to  which  the  bread- 
winner carries  a  neat  bag  or  attache  case  every 
weekday  morning,  between  eight  and  ten.  The 
removals  mark  a  rise  in  the  social  scale,  and  are 
celebrated  by  new  responsibilities,  in  the  addition 

7 


8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

of  servants,  greenhouses,  garages  and  acres  of 
ground  requiring  "  upkeep."  The  heights  of  Elysium 
are,  in  the  end,  reached  by  train.  Between  the 
main  railway  station  and  the  outskirts  of  wealth, 
lie  nearly  two  miles  of  shops,  and  a  professional 
quarter  where  the  inner  darkness  of  blocks  and 
terraces  shades  into  the  dim  glory  of  semi-detached 
houses.  The  next  stage  of  grandeur  is  seen  in  the 
increase  of  laurel  bushes  and  gravel  paths  round 
each  semi-detached  pair.  When  the  flower-beds 
in  front,  and  the  tennis  lawns  at  the  back,  reach  a 
certain  standard  of  importance  they  flow  into  each 
other  by  connecting  paths  between  the  buildings, 
and  each  house  then  stands  alone,  detached,  in  the 
full  radiance  of  encircling  "  grounds." 

It  was  nearly  ten  o'clock  before  Messrs.  Burridge's 
stately  pantechnicons  reached  their  destination,  a 
large,  square,  cinnamon-coloured  house,  standing  in 
about  two  acres  of  ground  on  the  borders  of  Mill- 
port's  largest  and  most  satisfactory  park.  General 
Fulton,  who  had  taken  a  five  years'  lease  of  it, 
wondered  many  times  what  had  induced  him  to 
leave  his  comfortable  little  house  in  Westminster. 
He  had  meant  to  retire  from  the  army  at  the  end  of 
the  war,  and  had  been  turning  over  in  his  mind 
many  agreeable  plans  for  the  future,  when  he  was 
offered  the  command  of  a  military  district  of  which 
Millport  was  the  centre.  In  a  rash  moment  he 
confided  the  offer  to  his  wife,  hoping  for  some  enter- 
tainment from  her  habit  of  commenting  seriously 
on  matters  which  he  regarded  as  trifling.  To  his 
surprise  and  disgust,  she  surpassed  his  expectation, 
and  pointed  out  unanswerable  reasons  why  the 
command  must  be  accepted.  She  confronted  him 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  9 

with  facts  about  his  income,  which  had  hitherto  been 
sufficient.  But  he  neither  read  the  papers  nor 
practised  arithmetic,  and,  as  she  observed  at  the 
end  of  the  argument,  "  seemed  to  suppose  that 
girls'  clothes  grew  on  their  backs."  His  reply  to 
this  last  shot  produced  a  silence  which  he  knew  to  be 
ominous  of  a  settled  programme  ;  he  knew  that  he 
had  thrown  away  his  last  chance  by  "  saying  some- 
thing coarse,"  and  that  any  further  excuses  would 
be  flung  unregarded  into  the  flame  of  her  spiritual 
nature  (a  possession  which  is  supposed  by  women 
who  boast  of  it,  to  guarantee  also  a  sound  business 
judgment).  He  appealed  in  vain  to  his  daughters 
Evangeline  and  Teresa.  Evangeline  said  carelessly, 
"  Oh,  do  let's,  father,"  and  left  the  room  to  post  a 
letter.  She  informed  the  maid  whom  she  passed  on 
the  stairs  that,  "  we  are  all  going  to  Millport,  and 
isn't  it  fun  ?  "  Teresa  ran  her  fingers  through  her 
untidy  hair,  done  up  for  the  first  time,  and  said, 
"  If  it  is  by  the  sea  couldn't  we  have  a  cottage  ?  " 

General  Fulton,  avoiding  his  wife's  eye,  mixed 
himself  a  whisky  and  soda.  It  was  the  only  way  to 
drown  his  bitter  regret  at  having  ever  mentioned  the 
appointment.  "  You'll  never  get  another  house  as 
nice  as  this,"  he  suggested  feebly.  "  I've  been  to 
Millport  once,  and  it's  a  filthy  place.  There  was 
a  great  black  church  opposite  the  hotel,  and  drunken 
old  women  poking  stale  fish  about."  Teresa 
shivered,  but  said  nothing. 

"  I  don't  suppose  those  poor  old  women  ever 
thought  of  drinking  until  they  were  taught  by  their 
husbands,"  said  Mrs.  Fulton,  glancing  at  the  tumbler 
he  held,  but  she  added  hurriedly,  before  he  had  time 
to  protest,  "  and  I  believe  it  is  perfectly  necessary 


io  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

to  poke  fish  before  you  can  tell  whether  it  is  fresh 
or  not.  You  would  see  that  kind  of  thing  in  any 
town  you  went  to,  Cyril.  And,  anyhow,  one 
doesn't  live  down  there.  Father  and  mother  lived 
in  Millport  for  years,  and  I  know  father  said  every- 
one lived  right  out." 

"  Well,  I  don't  think  I  want  the  thing,"  he  said 
bravely.  "  I  am  not  going  to  take  it."  He  gathered 
up  his  morning's  correspondence.  "  I'm  out  to 
lunch,  Sue." 

"  Do  you  mind  paying  some  money  into  the  bank 
for  me  as  you  go  past  ?  "  she  said  gently.  "  The 
last  quarter  hasn't  been  nearly  enough.  I  suppose 
it  is  the  income  tax  and  the  price  of  every- 
thing." 

General  Fulton  looked  at  her  in  exasperated 
admiration  as  she  sat  there,  quietly  warming  her 
toes  in  front  of  the  fire,  meditative  and  candid  ; 
the  typical  gentle  wife  who  patiently  adds  up  the 
problems  of  life  for  her  husband,  and  leaves  his 
wisdom  to  unravel  the  answer. 

"  Why  didn't  you  say  at  the  beginning  that  we 
were  in  debt  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  don't  know  that  we  are,  dear,"  she  said, 
looking  at  him  in  perfect  innocence.  "  I  only  said 
that  I  couldn't  manage  on  what  you  gave  me.  I 
don't  know  what  your  shares  come  to  ;  it  is  all 
Greek  to  me." 

"  Well,  have  it  your  own  way,  damn  it,"  returned 
her  husband.  "  Perhaps  you've  inherited  business 
instincts,  and  they  always  go  with  turpitude." 

"  I  wish  you  would  think  a  little  of  the  children 
sometimes,"  she  said,  glancing  at  Teresa  who  sat 
lost  in  thought  by  the  window,  hearing  what  they 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  n 

said,  and  trying  in  vain  to  understand  what  the 
argument  really  meant. 

"  Do  you  want  to  go  to  Millport,  Dicky  ?  "  her 
father  asked  kindly. 

"  I  don't  know,"  she  said.  "  It  is  on  the  sea, 
isn't  it  ?  " 

"  It's  on  shrimps,"  he  replied,  "  and  docks — things 
that  open  and  shut  at  you — and  it  is  as  black  as 
night,  and  people  walk  about  with  bread  under 
their  arms.  Well,  goodbye,  dear ;  your  mother 
says  we're  going,  and  she  knows — she  cares — God 
bless  her."  He  kissed  Teresa  affectionately,  and 
left  the  room. 

And  so,  the  course  of  time  showed  Messrs. 
Burridge's  pantechnicons  casting  the  contents  of 
Cyril's  happy  little  home  into  the  ornate  cinnamon 
jaws  of  a  house  that  he  said  made  him  think  some- 
how of  the  late  Prince  Albert.  "  The  sort  of  thing 
he'd  have  built  for  the  head  gamekeeper,  Sue,"  he 
remarked  after  lunch  on  their  first  day  there.  "  And 
the  park  is  the  very  thing  for  '  interments ' ;  you 
could  see  them  winding  all  the  way  from  end  to  end. 
I  hope  it  will  come  up  to  your  expectations  in  the 
matter  of  wealthy  consorts  for  the  girls  ;  or  is  that 
not  part  of  the  scheme  ?  " 

"  I  don't  like  joking  about  marriage,  Cyril,  you 
know  that,"  she  replied,  "  it  may  mean  so  much  to  a 
girl."  She  sighed.  She  had  been  very  beautiful 
twenty  years  before,  and  would  have  been  so  still, 
but  for  the  fact  that  years  of  quiet  enjoyment  of  her 
own  skill  in  getting  what  she  wanted,  and  a  conscious 
superiority  over  people  who  "  worried  about  what 
couldn't  be  helped  "  had  obliterated  the  delicate 
lines  of  her  face,  and  given  to  the  fleeting  dimple, 


12  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

which  used  to  be  the  despair  and  delight  of  her 
lovers,  the  coarser  appearance  of  a  crease  in  a  satin 
cushion. 

"  It  may  mean  something  to  her  partner,  too, 

you  come  to  that,"  returned  Cyril.  "  It  will  to 
Evangeline's,  I  should  think.  I  wouldn't  be  in  his 
shoes  for  something.  She's  like  you,  Sue,  in  some 
ways  ;  with  all  the  naughty  little  point  of  the  story 
eft  out.  I  never  knew  such  a  rough  rider  in  the 
field  of  conversation.  She'd  never  have  been  able  to 
stuff  me  with  the  stories  you  did  about  the  injury 
to  your  pure  young  mind  when  I  kissed  you.  Lord  1 
think  of  it  1  " 

Mrs.  Fulton  kept  a  dignified  silence  for  a  minute  or 
two,  and  then  sighed  again,  as  if  to  waft  away  the 
possibility  of  looking  at  Nature's  beauties  with  a 
man  who  had  been  blind  from  birth.  "  How  did 
you  like  the  people  you  met  to-day  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  Oh,  some  of  them  weren't  bad.  Hatton  will  be 
here  to  breakfast.  He'll  always  be  about  the  place, 
so  I  hope  you'll  like  him  ;  he's  my  A.D.C.  And 
all  their  wives  will  be  round  soon,  I  suppose,  to  pay 
their  respects.  Hatton  hasn't  got  one  I'm  glad  to 
say  ;  though  I  daresay  he'll  be  as  preoccupied  with 
the  subject  as  if  he  had.  I  wish  I  had  gone  into  the 
Navy  instead  of  the  Army." 

"  Why  ?  "  she  asked,  though  she  knew  that  the 
drift  of  what  he  was  going  to  say  would  be  somehow 
unflattering  to  herself. 

"  Because  one's  subordinates  have  always  got  a 
neat  woman  in  lodgings  somewhere,  and  they  just 
clear  off  in  their  spare  time  and  keep  themselves 
employed  until  one  meets  them  again.  Their  wives 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  13 

don't  litter  about  the  place  and  fight  with  each 
other." 

"  I  don't  know  how  any  woman  can  care  to  be  a 
mere  tool  like  that,"  she  replied.  "  It  must  make 
them  so  one-sided." 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  think  of  the  feelings  of  the 
happy  man  who  can  say,  '  This  little  side  is  all  for 
me,'  and  knows  that  she  has  no  other  to  give  to 
one  who  might  like  to  have  it.  Why,  it  would  make 
life  a  different  thing.  Where  are  the  girls,  by  the 
way  ?  " 

"  I  think  they  are  arranging  their  rooms  and  show- 
ing the  servants  where  to  put  things.  They  seem 
to  be  the  most  curious  creatures  that  we  have  got ; 
but  it  was  so  difficult  to  find  well  trained  ones.  They 
call  me  '  Mrs.  Fulton,'  and  tell  me  what  they  have 
been  accustomed  to.  I  think  I  shall  engage  a  house- 
keeper, Cyril.  I  do  hate  explaining,  and  these 
creatures  want  to  argue  about  everything." 

"  Can't  the  girls  do  it  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Oh  no  ;  they  have  other  things  to  do.  Besides, 
Evangeline  turns  everything  upside  down.  I  had 
the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting  the  dining-room 
table  put  where  I  wanted  it.  Of  course  I  want  the 
dears  to  have  everything  as  they  like,  but  I  do  wish 
sometimes  they  would  be  a  little  more  help." 

"  Oh,  well,  we  managed  all  right  in  the  old  place." 

"  Yes,  but  then  these  servants  won't  do  nearly  so 
much,"  she  complained,  "  and  they  have  more  to  do 
as  it  is.  I  must  say  I  think  it  is  only  right  that  we 
should  consider  them  more  than  we  used  to  do.  It 
must  be  so  dreadful  to  work  all  day.  I  am  sure  that 
new  girl  Strickland  would  be  more  satisfied  and  likely 
to  stop  if  you  kept  your  room  tidier,  Cyril." 


I4  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Evangeline  poked  her  head  round  the  door. 
"  Father,"  she  asked,  "  can  I  leave  your  books  and 
have  a  lesson  on  the  car  from  that  magnificent  Fitz- 
Augustus  person  of  yours  ?  He  says  he  is  going 
some  messages  for  you,  and  he  wouldn't  mind " 

"  Anything  you  like,"  said  her  father,  "  so  long 
as  I  don't  know  anything  about  it ;  you  can't  drive 
without  a  licence.  Also,  if  you'll  make  Dicky  go 
for  a  walk  with  me.  I  must  go  into  the  town,  and 
I  must  have  some  exercise,  and  I  won't  walk  alone." 

"  I  don't  think  we'll  do  that  business  after  all,"  he 
said  as  he  left  the  house  with  Teresa  half  an  hour 
later.  "  It  only  means  a  small  additional  coolness 
to  the  heels  of  an  unknown  gentleman  in  an  office. 
They'll  warm  up  again  to-morrow,  like  a  lodging 
house  chop.  You've  never  lived  in  lodgings  [have 
you  ?  " 

"  No,  never." 

"  Well,  never  do.  When  I  lived  in  lodgings  and 
used  to  be  a  bit  off  colour  in  the  morning  I  used  to 
see  ornaments  about  everywhere.  I  remember 
I  once  saw  a  china  dog,  with  a  basket  of  forget-me- 
nots  in  its  mouth,  on  the  Colonel's  table  in  the 
middle  of  his  papers,  and  I'm  hanged  if  I  know  to 
this  day  whether  it  was  a  real  one  or  not.  I  could 
never  make  up  my  mind  about  it,  though  it  gave 
me  such  a  turn  that  I  went  round  to  the  chemist 
and  got  something." 

"  What  else,"  asked  Teresa.     "  That's  lovely." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  remember  anything  special ;  but 
they  never  clean  the  mustard  pot  in  those  places — 
that  was  another  thing.  They've  no  sense.  And 
I  never  could  find  the  matches.  They'd  be  at  the 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  15 

bottom  of  a  vase  with  dried  grass  in  it,  or  that  kind 
of  thing.  I  think  this  ought  to  take  us  down  to  the 
docks.  Would  you  like  to  see  them  ?  " 

"  Yes,  awfully,"  she  agreed,  and  they  walked 
some  way  in  silence.  "  They  are  nicer  houses 
down  here  if  they  weren't  so  dirty,  aren't  they  ?  "  she 
said  presently,  looking  up  at  the  windows  as  they 
passed  along  a  street  to  which  some  bygone  architect 
had  bequeathed  an  indestructible  dignity.  Their 
restful  proportions  and  large  windows  gave  her  a 
sudden  sense  of  relief  after  the  turrets  and  variegated 
excrescences,  coloured  bricks  disposed  in  geometrical 
patterns,  and  twisted  ironwork  that  adhered  to 
the  semi-detached  quarter  they  had  passed 
through. 

"  Yes,"  said  her  father.  "  I  expect  all  the  old 
turpitudes — pious  founders  and  all  that — lived  down 
here.  Our  place  was  probably  a  marsh  or  a  coal 
mine  or  something,  till  the  influence  of  the  Late 
Lamented  overtook  it.  A  man  I  met  yesterday  was 
talking  about  slaves.  They  were  up  to  all  sorts  of 
games  down  at  their  warehouses.  The  negro  still 
flourishes  apparently,"  he  added,  as  a  group  of 
black  men  passed  them  and  turned  down  a  narrow 
street,  where  tousled  women  stood  at  their  doors, 
and  children  screamed  in  the  gutter.  They  crossed 
over  a  thoroughfare  at  which  main  streets  intersected 
one  another,  and  accommodation  for  sailors  was 
advertised  by  mission  rooms,  clubs,  public  houses, 
slop  shops,  and  reiterated  offers  of  beds.  Blocks 
of  shops,  shipping  bureaus  and  warehouses  split 
up  further  on  into  single  gigantic  buildings,  the 
offices  of  the  state  and  of  great  trading  companies, 
full  as  beehives,  and  glittering  with  prosperity ;  all 


16  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

the  organism  of  a  seaport  in  touch  with  continents. 
The  sea  air  was  fresh  in  their  faces. 

"  That's  good,"  said  Cyril.  "  We'll  go  and  hang 
about." 

They  went  precariously  down  a  sloping  bridge, 
slippery  with  mud  from  the  feet  of  a  stream  of  hurry- 
ing workers  intent  on  their  home  affairs  which  lay 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  stood  by  a  line 
of  iron  chains  that  stretched  indefinitely  along  the 
gently  heaving  planks  of  the  stage  to  which  the 
ferry  boats  were  moored.  A  red  sun  hung  above  the 
chimneys  on  the  opposite  side  in  a  slight  fog  that 
was  creeping  up  the  river,  and,  from  mysterious 
shapes  behind  this  veil,  hooters,  syrens  and  clanging 
bells  answered  one  another  in  warnings  to  the 
capering  atoms  of  whom  the  drowning  of  even  one 
would  affect,  in  some  degree,  the  life  of  the  city. 

"  Do  you  know,"  said  Teresa  presently,  "  that 
I  haven't  seen  a  single  person — what  we  used  to 
call  '  person  ' — since  we  came  out ;  nothing  but 
the  kind  of  people  who  make  crowds." 

"  That's  because  you  don't  know  them,"  said 
Cyril.  "  I  saw  a  millionaire  get  off  the  boat  a 
minute  ago,  '  walking  quite  unaffectedly,'  as  the 
newspapers  say." 

"  No,  but  the  dressed  people,"  said  Teresa,  "  you 
know  what  I  mean.  Where  are  they  ?  " 

"  My  dear,  how  should  I  know  ?  "  he  replied 
carelessly.  "  That's  what  I  tried  to  explain  to  your 
mother  before  we  came;  I  thought  it  would  put 
her  off.  But  I  shouldn't  be  in  the  least  surprised 
if  she  took  up  philanthropy." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  she'd  go  on  committees  ?  " 
Teresa  asked  awestruck. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  17 

"  She  might  quite  well,  and  if  I  were  the  com- 
mittee I  should  just  tell  her  what  I  wanted  done, 
and  leave  her  to  do  it  her  own  way.  You'd  find 
it  would  work  out  in  the  end." 

"  But  those  kind  of  people  are  generally  so  interfer- 
ing," said  Teresa.  "  Mother  is  not." 

"  No,  but  she  is  a  master  of  strategy,"  said  Cyril. 
"  I  used  to  read  about  Napoleon  when  we  were 
taught  strategy.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  his  battles  ?  " 

"  You  mean  Waterloo  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Yes,  but  that  didn't  come  off.  His  great  success 
was  before  then.  She  may  meet  her  Wellington  on 
the  playing  fields  of  Millport  for  all  you  know.  We 
shall  see.  Let's  go  back  to  tea.  Have  a  taxi  ?  " 

"  No,  let's  go  on  the  top  of  a  tram,"  said  Teresa. 
"  I  want  to  have  that  rod  thing  arranged  over  my 
head.  Did  you  see  the  conductor  running  round 
with  a  string  and  hooking  the  little  wheel  on  at  the 
back  ?  " 

"Well,  I  don't  mind,"  he  conceded,  "but  the 
smell  will  knock  you  down." 

"  What  smell  ?  "  asked  Teresa. 

"  Demos,  a  crowd,"  he  replied,  as  they  made 
their  slow  progress  between  the  jostling  workers 
who  still  poured  uninterruptedly  across  the  bridge, 
"  see  also  '  Demosthenes  '  and  '  demon  ' — and 
'  demi-monde  ',"  he  added  reflectively,  as  a  whiff 
of  strong  scent  struck  him  from  a  girl  with  a  sharp 
elbow. 

"  What  a  fuss  you  make  about  smells  and  things," 
she  said.  "  They're  all  life.  They  mean  all  sorts 
of  things." 

"  Well,  they  don't  mean  anything  I  want,"  he 
grumbled.  "  I  believe  everybody  in  this  damned 


18  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

place  wears  fish  next  the  skin."  This  was  said  with 
profound  disgust  as  they  took  their  places  on  a 
little  seat  at  the  top  of  the  tram  staircase,  and 
other  swarms  of  people  with  pale,  serious  faces  and 
drab  clothing  pushed  past  his  knees  to  the  glass 
shelter  beyond.  The  windows  became  fogged  with 
human  breath  and  clouds  of  cheap  tobacco,  and  as 
the  sun  disappeared  in  the  drifting  fog  from  the 
river,  the  mud  began  to  filter  down  once  more  on 
to  the  roofs,  and  to  ooze  up  from  under  the  stones 
of  the  pavement.  The  car  swayed  under  its  heavy 
load,  with  occasional  grinding  squeals,  stopping 
every  few  hundred  yards  to  take  up  new  burdens 
in  place  of  those  who  had  reached  their  destination. 
Teresa  watched  the  squalid  forms  and  weary  faces 
with  a  new-born  ecstasy.  Some  veiled  desire,  a 
love  for  something  unknown,  which  had  led  her  in 
pursuit  for  as  long  as  she  could  remember,  had 
stopped  and  shown  itself  to  her  for  a  moment.  Then 
it  fled  again  from  her  reach. 


CHAPTER  II 

ONE  great  source  of  mental  nourishment  that 
Evangeline  relied  on  at  this  time  was  the  Press. 
Two  thirds  of  the  things  she  thought  about  each  day 
came  from  the  newspapers,  plain  or  illustrated,  but 
not  political ;  that  is  to  say,  not  political  beyond 
striking  headlines  and  a  short — very  short — leading 
article.  Her  mind  made  curious  pictures  of  these 
scraps  of  state  information.  Perhaps  the  best  way 
of  describing  what  she  thought  Parliament  is,  and 
does,  is  to  imagine  oneself  very  agile,  very  kind,  very 
interested,  perched  inside  the  roof  of  an  immense 
building,  looking  down  on  hundreds  of  elderly 
gentlemen  all  of  one  type,  but  some  with  familiar 
faces.  We,  from  our  perch,  know  that  each  of  them 
has  gone  through  a  period  of  anxiety  and  expense, 
connected  with  loss  of  voice  and  terrible  boredom 
of  his  supporters,  who  have  to  sit  behind  him  on 
uncomfortable  chairs  and  wish  he  would  pull  his 
coat  down  at  the  back  before  speaking.  This  period 
of  trial  has  ended  in  an  election — ribbon  and  scratch 
meals — and  then  he  got  a  "  seat  "  here  on  something- 
or-other  benches  (Evangeline  had  been  at  school, 
but  she  wasn't  in  the  serious  lot,  at  least,  not  the 
brainy  serious.  Her  set  used  only  to  discuss  things 
like  immortality  when  they  felt  really  friendly). 
Once  on  these  "  benches  "  men  become  political, 
and  lose  considerably  in  spiritual  value,  except  when 

19 


20  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

they  call  out  the  army  and  navy.  Otherwise  they 
spend  their  time  henceforth  in  committing  blunders 
(the  meat  blunder,  the  wool  blunder,  the  tax  blunder, 
the  housing  blunder,  etc.),  to  the  perpetual  in- 
convenience of  the  public,  until  something  happens 
to  the  Cabinet  and  a  lot  of  well-known  people  who 
were  IN  become  OUT,  and  it  makes  no  difference 
at  all,  except  as  a  frail  raft  for  the  drowning  in 
conversation.  But  the  rest  of  the  paper  is  worth 
reading ;  there  are  things  to  interest  everybody. 
The  eccentric  behaviour  of  criminals,  landladies 
and  leaders  of  society  ;  adventures,  and  reports  of 
shipwrecks  and  calves  with  two  tails.  On  the  last 
page  there  is  often  expert  advice  on  physical  fitness 
and  the  complexion. 

On  the  morning  following  Teresa's  walk  to  the 
docks  with  her  father  Evangeline  began  to  try  the 
effects  of  the  juice  of  an  orange  accompanied  by 
half  an  hour's  deep  breathing  before  breakfast.  She 
had  walked  and  deep  breathed  in  the  park,  and 
returned  full  of  exhilaration  from  the  sight  of  the 
dewy  grass,  young  tulips  pushing  through  the 
heavy  dun  soil  and  the  song  of  birds  in  smoke-laden 
trees  and  bushes  that  were  budding  as  irrepressibly 
as  herself.  She  stood  on  the  edge  of  a  pond  and 
watched  the  ducks  performing  an  ecstatic  toilet. 
Their  gutteral  sounds  of  pleasure  and  the  grinding 
of  distant  tram  wheels  were  the  only  sounds  besides 
the  chorus  of  chirping.  The  only  people  she  met 
were  a  policeman  on  one  side  of  the  pond,  and  a 
dressmaker's  assistant  on  the  other,  and  she  felt 
that  God  was  the  friend  of  both  as  of  the  ducks  and 
the  Spring  ;  they  were  not  at  all  in  the  way.  When 
she  arrived  at  home  a  man  in  military  uniform  was 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  21 

standing  on  the  doorstep.     He  was  young  and  had 
the  face  of  a  reformer. 

"  Good  morning,"  she  said.  "  Are  you  coming 
in?" 

"  Please,"  he  answered  gravely,  and  said  no  more, 
while  she  fitted  her  latchkey.  She  led  the  way  into 
the  dining-room,  where  breakfast  was  laid,  and 
looked  vaguely  round. 

"  Shall  I  tell  my  father  you're  here  ?  "  she  asked 
hesitatingly,  and  then,  with  sudden  uncontrollable 
interest,  "  are  you  the  man  that  hasn't  got  a 
wife  ?  " 

He  started  and  frowned.  He  was  embarrassed, 
and  felt  that  the  question  was  not  one  that  should 
have  been  asked  by  a  stranger.  "  No,  I  am  not 
married,"  he  snapped. 

"  Is  your  name  Hatton  ?  "  she  asked  next. 

"  Yes." 

"  Oh,  then  Father  told  us  about  you.     Do  you 
want  to  see  him  ?  " 

"  Very  much,"  said  Captain  Hatton  with 
emphasis. 

"  I'll  fetch  him,"  she  said,  "  but  do  sit  down 
and  be  comfortable."  She  went  out  and  called, 
"  Father  !  Father  !  "  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairs. 
"  Father  !  Oh,  drat  him  !  I  believe  he  is  still  in 
the  bath."  Captain  Hatton,  erect  on  the  hearth- 
rug in  front  of  the  door  she  had  left  open,  heard, 
and  winced. 

"  Dick— y  !     Dick— y  !  "  she  called  next. 

"  Oh,  do  come  up,  Chips,  if  you  want  anything," 
he  heard  a  small  weary  voice  say  upstairs.  "  Father 
is  in  the  bath  ;  he'll  be  out  directly." 

"  Well  tell  him  to  hurry  up  ;  it's  Captain  Hatton," 


22  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

said  Evangeline,  and  she  plunged  back  into  the 
dining-room. 

"  I  am  afraid  my  watch  must  be  all  wrong," 
he  said,  as  he  glanced  round  the  room  in  hope 
of  moral  support  from  an  accusing  clock.  "  I 
thought  General  Fulton  said  breakfast  at  half-past 
eight." 

"  So  it  is,"  said  Evangeline.  "  It  is  only  twenty 
minutes  to  nine  now.  Father  won't  get  up  if  he 
has  an  interesting  post.  What  time  do  you  get 
up?" 

"  Oh — er — a  quarter  to  seven  usually,"  he  re- 
plied. 

"  A  quarter  to ?  Gracious  !  Do  you  mean 

in  the  very  middle  of  a  minute  like  that  ?  It  seems 
just  as  if  you  said  '  up  goes  the  hand  of  my  watch, 
down  goes  my  leg  on  the  floor.'  I  couldn't  do  that. 
I  have  to  yawn  a  long  time  first  and  then  get  out 
by  degrees  till  it  gets  too  cold  not  to  do  something 
about  it." 

There  was  silence.  Evangeline  felt  depressed. 
All  her  gladness  in  the  awakening  spring  had  gone. 
"  Would  you  like  to  look  at  the  paper  ?  "  she  asked 
with  a  sigh.  He  said,  "  Thank  you,"  but  as  he 
stretched  out  his  hand  to  take  it  from  her  he  saw 
that  it  was  not  Country  Life,  but  a  lady's  paper. 
Doll-like  faces  with  no  noses,  shameless  trousseaux, 
ridiculous  young  men  in  black,  scent  bottles  and 
wigs  met  his  eye  on  the  open  page. 

"  Er— thanks  very  much,"  he  said,  "  I  think  I'll 
wait  for  the  morning  paper.  What  time  do  you 
get  it  ?  " 

"  I  expect  it  has  come,"  said  Evangeline.  "  The 
boy  generally  flings  it  in  at  the  kitchen  window." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  23 

She  rang  the  bell.  "  Breakfast,  please,  Strickland, 
and  the  paper  if  it  has  come,"  she  ordered. 

"  I  was  waiting  till  Mrs.  Fulton  came  down," 
said  the  maid  severely.  Evangeline  sighed  again. 
"  How  obstructive  everyone  is  this  morning,"  she 
thought,  but  said  aloud,  "  No,  we'll  begin  please, 
and  anyhow  I  want  the  paper." 

But  neither  came  and  the  silence  grew  heavier. 
She  wanted  to  rush  out  of  the  room  ;  she  knew  that 
her  hair  was  untidy  and  two  of  her  finger  nails  were 
grubby  owing  to  having  restored  a  strayed  worm 
to  what  she  thought  a  safe  place  on  the  bank  of 
the  pond,  where  a  duck  had  eaten  him  at  once  to 
her  disgust.  But  she  could  not  move  from  the 
sofa  where  she  had  taken  refuge  with  her  rejected 
paper.  The  barrier  of  Captain  Hatton's  eye 
stretched  between  her  and  the  door  and  she  felt 
that  it  might  touch  her  as  she  ran  past ;  if  it  did 
she  would  have  to  scream.  Suddenly — "  A — tish — 
u  !  " — a  fearful  explosion.  Captain  Hatton  had 
sneezed.  There  was  a  dead  silence  while  Evangeline 
held  her  breath  and  dared  not  look.  Then  again 
the  awful  sound  ;  and  again  ;  eight  times. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  said  when  all  was  quiet 
again.  "  Extraordinary  how  these  attacks  come 
on." 

The  great  friendly  creature  cheered  up  at  once 
on  this  crumb  of  encouragement.  "  I  like  sneez- 
ing," she  said.  "  It  almost  takes  the  place  of 
swearing.  You  feel  better  and  no  harm  done  to 
anybody." 

"  Ah — h'm,"  he  agreed  without  enthusiasm. 

"  There's  Mother  coming,"  she  said  thankfully 
as  a  gentle  rustle  was  heard  in  the  passage.  Susie 


24  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

came  in  in  a  soft  breakfast  gown  that  avoided 
conclusions  with  her  figure.  Her  hair  was  beauti- 
fully done  and  her  face  delicately  cared  for.  Cap- 
tain Hatton,  though  he  approved  of  her  evidently 
careful  toilet,  took  a  vague  dislike  to  her  because 
it  had  not  been  carried  through  at  the  specified 
time. 

"  I  am  so  sorry  my  husband  is  late,"  she  mur- 
mured, "  I  am  afraid  we  got  into  bad  habits  in 
London.  Everything  is  so  late  there  and  the 
morning  is  really  the  loveliest  time,  isn't  it  ?  I 
remember  once  being  out  at  six  to  catch  a  train 
and  the  birds  were  simply  delightful.  Do  you  sing 
at  all  ?  "  she  inquired,  her  eyes  brimming  with 
sympathetic  interest. 

"I  do  occasionally,"  he  admitted,  heartily 
wishing  that  his  chief  would  come  and  relieve  him. 

"  I  hope  we  shall  often  hear  you,"  said  Mrs. 
Fulton.  "  I  always  think  music  is  such  a  happy 
thing.  Evangeline  dear,  ring  the  bell." 

"  I  have  rung  twice,"  she  said. 

"  Servants  are  very  unpunctual  as  a  race,"  Mrs. 
Fulton  observed.  "  I  wish  they  would  get  up 
earlier,  but  I  daresay  they  are  often  tired  like  we 
are."  Strickland  came  in  with  the  hot  dishes. 
"  We  shall  want  some  more  toast,  I  think,  Strick- 
land." 

'  The  fire's  not  hot  enough,"  answered  the  maid. 
'  The  cook  was  late  this  morning." 

'  Then  just  run  up  and  make  a  little  at  the  gas 
fire  in  the  General's  dressing-room,"  Susie  ordered. 
"  Will  you  help  yourself,  Captain  Hatton." 

A  few  minutes  later  Cyril  entered  hurriedly  in 
his  dressing-gown.  "  I  say,  Sue,  what  the  devil— 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  25 

hullo,  Hatton,  that  you  ? — what  the  devil  did  you 
send  that  woman  to  make  toast  in  my  room  for  ? 
I'd  nothing  but " 

"  Cyril  dear,  never  mind,"  his  wife  interrupted. 
"  The  kitchen  fire  wasn't  quite  ready  ;  she  won't 
be  a  minute." 

"  Well,  I  can't  go  back  to  dress  now,"  he  com- 
plained. 

"  It  will  teach  us  to  be  more  punctual  to-morrow," 
said  Mrs.  Fulton.  "  We  must  set  them  a  good 
example.  Dicky  ought  to  be  down  too." 

Teresa  came  in  quietly  and  shut  the  door  without 
looking  at  anyone.  She  was  flushed  and  seemed 
preoccupied  and  had  evidently  forgotten  Evan- 
geline's  announcement  of  a  guest.  "  My  hair 
refuses  to  go  up,"  she  began,  turning  straight  to 
the  sideboard.  "  I  shall  do  it  like  some  women  I 
saw  yesterday.  The  front  was  all  in  tiny  plaits 
and  the  back — well,  it  wasn't  hairdressing,  it  was 
plumbing.  You've  been  pretty  hearty  with  the 
kedgeree,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"  Dicky,  darling,  I  don't  think  you  have  seen 
Captain  Hatton,"  her  mother  suggested.  Teresa 
turned  unconcernedly. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  apologised.  "  How  do  you 
do  ?  I  remember  my  sister  did  tell  me  you  were 
here,  but  I  happened  to  be  thinking  at  the  time 
and  I  forgot." 

"  Please  don't  bother,"  he  said.  He  was  re- 
covering his  temper  under  the  influence  of  break- 
fast and  the  sense  of  safety  that  his  host  brought. 
"  You'll  see  so  much  of  me,  I'm  afraid,  that  I'd 
rather  you  did  not  notice  it." 

"  Don't   hope   for   that,    Hatton,"    put   in    the 


26  THREE   LOVING*  LADIES 

General.  "  They'll  see  everything  you  do.  It's 
a  damned  noticing  family  ;  except  Evangeline  and 
she'll  fall  over  you  in  the  dark  every  time." 

Captain  Hatton  looked  embarrassed  and  changed 
the  subject.  "  Are  you  going  to  like  being  here, 
do  you  think  ?  "  he  asked  Susie. 

"  Oh,  I  think  so,"  she  replied.  "  Of  course  it  is 
quite  different  from  London,  but  there  must  be 
some  nice  people.  Do  you  know  many  people 
here  yet  ?  " 

"  I  have  got  some  friends  who  live  a  few  miles 
out,"  he  said.  "  I  have  stayed  with  them  for 
hunting,  but  I've  been  out  of  England  for  the 
last  three  years.  We  were  sent  to  Germany  after 
the  armistice  and  I  came  back  to  go  into 
hospital." 

"  Oh,  dear  me,  those  hospitals  !  "  she  sighed. 
"  Shall  I  ever  forget  them  !  I  couldn't  do  any 
actual  nursing,  of  course,  though  I  should  have 
loved  it ;  but  I  don't  think  it  was  right  the  way 
women  left  their  children.  But  I  used  to  visit 
the  poor  boys  and  wash  up.  I  get  such  touching 
letters  from  them  even  now.  Do  you  remember 
young  Digby,  Cyril  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't,  but  I  could  make  a  fair  guess  at 
him.  You  forget  that  I  was  in  my  little  wooden 
hut  at  the  time  and  couldn't  leave  it  even  for  you. 
I  wonder  if  that  beastly  woman  is  out  of  my  room. 
Dicky — oblige  your  father.  Go  and  see  if  she  is 
there,  will  you  ?  I  want  to  get  dressed." 

"  She  is  making  toast,  dear,"  Mrs.  Fulton  ex- 
plained. '  You  might  ask  her  for  it ;  she  won't 
hear  the  bell." 

Teresa  went  out  and  met  Strickland  in  the  passage 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  27 

She  was  dusting  the  hall.  "  Can  we  have  the  toast, 
please  ?  "  Teresa  asked. 

"  It  isn't  made,"  Strickland  replied  coldly.  "  I 
couldn't  be  spoken  to  like  that.  I  shall  leave  at 
the  end  of  the  month.  I'm  not  accustomed  to  be 
blasted."  Teresa  touched  her  on  the  shoulder. 
"  Never  mind  Father,"  she  said.  "  We  none  of 
us  do.  He's  most  affectionate  really.  Forget  the 
toast ;  I'll  tell  them."  She  went  back  into  the 
dining-room  and  shut  the  door.  Mrs.  Fulton  was 
offering  dainty  morsels  of  sentiment  about  hospitals 
to  Captain  Hatton,  who  disposed  of  them  one  by 
one  with  the  indifference  a  sea  lion  shows  about  the 
quality  of  the  fish  thrown  into  its  mouth.  Teresa 
sat  down  by  her  father  and  said  in  a  low  voice, 
"  You  mustn't  swear  at  the  maids,  you  know. 
Strickland  is  very  angry  and  was  going  to  go,  but 
I  told  her  you  are  all  right.  I  don't  know  if  she 
will  recover,  but  you  must  remember  that  you 
don't  have  the  trouble  of  going  to  registry  offices." 

"  What  an  eternal  curse  women's  feelings  are," 
he  grumbled  as  he  pulled  out  a  cigarette  case.  "  I 
believe  they  grow  fat  on  them." 

"  But  then,  you  see,  your  men  have  none  at  all," 
she  explained,  "  which  is  as  bad  the  other  way, 
because  you  can't  make  them  hear  except  by 
blasting  and  all  those  kinds  of  words  that  mean 
nothing." 

"  But  they  do  mean  something,"  argued  her 
aggrieved  father.  "  They  mean,  '  You've  damn 
well  got  to  do  it  and  look  sharp.'  ' 

"  Yes,  but  if  you  say  to  a  woman,  '  Be  quick, 
Pansy  dear,'  she  does  it  just  as  well." 

Cyril   roared   with   laughter.     "  Here,    Hatton," 


28  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

he  said,  "  do  you  know  what  you've  got  to  say 
to  the  mess  sergeant  the  next  time  he  keeps  you 
waiting  ?  '  Be  quick,  Pansy  dear  !  '  Will  you  try 
it  first  or  shall  I  ?  "  Captain  Hatton  laughed. 

"  What  is  Dicky  saying  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Fulton 
indulgently. 

"  Explaining  the  art  of  commanding  those  of 
unripe  station,"  said  the  General.  "  Come  on  to 
my  room,  Hatton,  and  I'U  leave  you  there  while 
I  get  some  clothes  on — if  they're  not  all  over  toast 
and  tears,"  he  added  resentfully. 

"  Good  heavens  !  What  a  man  !  "  Evangeline 
exclaimed  when  the  door  shut  behind  them.  "  He's 
like  an  umbrella." 

"  Oh,  I  think  he's  charming,"  said  her  mother. 
"  So  much  tact,  and  most  interesting,  I  should 
think,  when  one  gets  to  know  him.  Ring  the  bell, 
Dicky  dear,  and  when  she  comes  to  clear  away 
tell  her  I  shall  be  in  my  sitting-room  if  she  wants 
me." 

"  What  are  we  going  to  do  with  ourselves  every 
day  in  this  place,  Chips  ?  "  Teresa  asked  her  sister 
when  they  were  alone. 

"  Oh,  what  we  have  done  before,  I  suppose," 
Evangeline  answered  carelessly.  She  was  reading 
the  paper  that  had  come  too  late  to  save  Captain 
Hatton's  temper.  The  Labour  Party,  she  read, 
were  determined  to  do  something  which  she  did  not 
understand,  but  which  foreboded  discomfort  to 
everybody  including  their  own  supporters.  They 
seemed  to  do  it  on  purpose,  like  schoolmistresses,  for 
some  end  which  no  reasonable  young  person  desires, 
even  if  it  could  be  achieved.  Who  exactly  were  the 
Labour  party  she  wondered  ?  The  paper  showed 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  29 

their  photographs  ;  clumsy  figures  in  impossible 
hats,  with  impossible  wives  whose  barren  heads 
contrasted  grotesquely  with  the  hairiness  of  their 
men's  faces.  She  looked  over  the  page.  An  officer, 
recently  demobilised,  had  committed  suicide  owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  a  blue-eyed  child, 
whose  portrait  was  inset  below  his  own.  The 
"  night  life  "  of  a  great  city  was  said  to  be  "  glit- 
tering with  unprecedented  extravagance  !  "  A 
millionaire  had  made  a  unique  will  at  a  place  she 
had  never  heard  of,  providing  for  the  purchase  of 
fifty  elephants,  which  were  to  be  presented  to  the 
Corporation,  and  supported  by  public  funds  for  the 
employment  of  superannuated  keepers. 

"  But  you  forget  that  I  haven't  done  anything 
except  go  to  classes,"  pursued  Teresa.  "  I  am 
supposed  to  be  '  out '  now." 

"  Jolly  lucky  for  you,"  remarked  her  sister. 
"  There  was  no  coming  out  in  my  time." 

"  I  don't  see  much  difference,"  said  Teresa, 
"  except  that  you  brought  your  own  food  to  parties 
and  didn't  wear  such  low  necks.  But  anyhow, 
what  I  meant  was  that  the  war  is  over,  and  we're 
in  a  new  place  and  we've  got  some  maids,  and  what 
is  the  next  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  Evangeline  answered  slowly. 
"  There  are  days  when  I  want  to  burst — you  know — 
with  a  pop,  in  the  sun  on  a  still  day — like  that, 
(she  waved  her  hands)  and  then  I  should  become 
something  quite  different.  I  should  be  full  of  ideas. 
I  don't  know  what  they  would  be  but  that  is  the 
exciting  part." 

"  This  is  a  very  dirty  town,"  Teresa  said,  as  she 
stood  at  the  window.  "  I  haven't  seen  any  people 


30  THREE   LOVING   LADIES 

yet  who  looked  as  if  they  liked  what  they  were 
doing." 

Evangeline's  eager  interest  had  faded.  "  Haven't 
you  ?  "  she  said. 

"  No,  and  I  don't  know  what  Mother  will  do  with 
herself,  either.  I  suppose  there  must  be  some 
ordinary  ones.  She's  a  social  success,  isn't  she  ?  " 

"  In  a  way "  Evangeline  hesitated.  "  She's 

not  like  an  American  mother  in  those  ways,  but  if 
you  notice  you'll  find  that  you  never  can  stop  any- 
thing happening  as  she  wants  it  to.  I  believe  she 
conjures.  She  seems  to  sit  down  by  a  hat  and  take 
no  notice  of  it,  and  then  there's  an  omelet  in  it. 
If  Father  doesn't  want  the  omelet,  or  we  don't,  she 
says  she  hasn't  made  it,  and  I  spend  my  life  trying 
to  find  out  whether  she  has  or  not." 

"  Well  that  hasn't  much  to  do  with  what  I  was 
saying,"  her  sister  continued.  "  We  shall  drift 
here  if  we  don't  look  out." 

"  Drift  ?  " 

"  Yes,  you  know — I  shah1  arrange  the  flowers,  and 
you  will  play  endless  games  and  go  to  things  and 
perhaps  '  take  up  '  something,  and  I  shall  shop  and 
be  polite  to  visitors,  and  I  really  don't  want  to  do 
anything  else.  I  am  not  energetic,  and  I  should 
love  to  live  in  a  cottage.  But  everything  is  so 
hideous  here,  and  those  smells  and  awful  faces 
make  me  sort  of  drunk." 

"  My  dear  !  "  Evangeline  sympathised  with  little 
understanding. 

"  Everyone  has  always  made  me  feel  a  little 
drunk/'  Teresa  went  on.  "  They  say  such  stupid 
things ;  sit  there  gibbering  and  drinking  tea,  and 
yet  all  the  people  in  history — anyone — Nebuchad- 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  31 

nezzar  or  Cleopatra  or  Anne  Boleyn — were  in  society, 
and  all  sorts  of  real  things  happened  to  them  ;  they 
didn't  ask  for  it.  And  I  believe  just  as  much  could 
happen  to  the  silly  people  who  pay  calls.  I  often 
understand  eating  grass  and  letting  one's  nails 
grow."  She  paused.  "  And  those  people  who  are 
poor — they  must  know  a  lot.  I  want  to  know  what 
it  is." 

"It  is  like  my  wanting  to  burst,  perhaps,"  said 
Evangeline.  "  Except  that  I  don't  want  to  know 
all  about  those  horrors.  I  hated  all  that  in  the  war, 
though,  of  course,  it  was  so  exciting  being  useful 
that  one  forgot  the  mess.  I  should  like  to  be  in  a 
dangerous  country  with  a  lovely  climate,  and  live 
with  a  man  who  had  read  everything  there  is. 
We  should  ride  all  day,  and  perhaps  have  some 
children  who  wouldn't  want  clothes  or  governesses 
nor  have  diseases." 

"  Like  a  cinema,"  commented  Teresa. 

"  Yes,  rather.  I  always  get  so  angry  with  the 
film  girl  who  is  left  in  a  log  cabin  with  a  perfectly 
beautiful  savage  who  leaves  her  the  room  to  herself 
out  of  chivalry  and  sleeps  in  the  stable  and  does  all 
he  can  for  her,  and  then  the  silly  ass  crawls  screaming 
round  the  walls,  and  wants  to  go  back  to  some  odious 
young  man  in  the  city." 

"  But  the  city  man  would  be  much  more  likely 
to  have  read  everything,"  her  sister  pointed  out. 
'  Your  savage  wouldn't  know  any  more  than  you 
do,  which  isn't  saying  much." 

"  No,  I  know,"  she  admitted  with  a  sigh.  "  I 
don't  know  what  I  want ;  perhaps  both  of  them  for 
different  days  ;  wet  Sundays  to  spend  with  the 
young  man  who  reads,  and  the  other  days,  when 


32  THREE   LOVING   LADIES 

it  is  sunny,  to  gallop  about  with  the  dangerous 
one." 

"  I  believe  there  is  more  in  it  than  that,"  said 
Teresa,  "  and  meantime  I  am  going  to  study  Strick- 
land. I  have  an  idea  she  can  tell  me  the  things 
I  want  to  know.  I  had  better  find  her,  by  the  way, 
and  give  her  Mother's  message.  I  don't  think  she 
takes  much  interest  in  bells."  She  left  Evangeline 
to  speculate  on  life  as  digested  for  her  by  the  news- 
paper, and  went  herself  in  search  of  the  woman  who, 
she  felt,  held  some  clue  to  the  pursuit  of  her  desire. 

At  the  end  of  a  week  she  recalled  her  sister's 
inspired  description  of  their  mother's  behaviour. 
Susie  had,  it  seemed,  by  some  unobservable  process, 
evolved  a  spiritual  omelet  out  of  the  most  un- 
promising material  among  the  people  who  called  on 
her.  Most  of  them  belonged  to  what  Strickland, 
who  had  begun  to  unbend  towards  Teresa,  assured 
her  were  "  some  of  our  leading  families." 

"  The  Manleys  are  very  well  known,"  she  said. 
"  Old  Mr.  Manley  did  a  great  deal  of  good,  and  was 
very  well  thought  of  all  over  the  town.  My  grand- 
father used  to  work  for  him,  and  he  always  said  he 
never  wished  to  have  a  better  master.  I  don't 
know  so  much  about  the  young  ones.  My  sister  lived 
with  Mrs.  James  Manley,  and  I  can't  say  she  enjoyed 
it.  Everything  was  very  near,  and  she  left  because 
she  got  run  down  with  the  work.  But  Mrs.  Eric 
Manley,  that  called  to-day,  is  well  enough  spoken 
of,  though  I  don't  think  much  of  her  myself." 

'  Yes, — Mrs.  Carpenter,"  she  said,  another  day, 
when  she  was  turning  down  Teresa's  bed.  "  I'm 
glad  you  mentioned  her.  She's  another  of  the  sort 
I  was  telling  you  about.  They're  well  enough  in 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  33 

public  I  suppose,  but  those  who  have  to  do  with 
them  when  they  get  back  know  who  are  the  real 
ladies  and  gentlemen.  Now  you'll  hear  a  great  deal, 
I  daresay,  about  Mrs.  Carpenter,  and  how  she  goes 
about  here  and  there  and  all  she  does,  but  I  wouldn't 
be  the  matron  of  some  of  those  homes  she  goes  to — 
no,  I  wouldn't  for  all  the  money  you  could  give  me  ; 
and  I  wouldn't  be  one  of  the  inmates,  either,  with 
all  the  advice  she  gives,  and  she  who  doesn't  know 
what  it  is  to  have  one  child  left  on  her  hands  for  a 
day,  let  alone  six  or  eight.  I  don't  say  she  doesn't 
go  about  here  and  there,  and  so  she  should,  for  she's 
the  time  and  the  money,  but  I  don't  think  it's  right 
for  servants  to  be  kept  up  till  all  hours  washing 
dishes  for  those  who  study  the  poor,  and  up  again 
next  morning  to  light  the  fires  in  time  for  ladies  to 
warm  themselves  while  they  telephone  for  the  best 
of  everything." 

"  Yes,"  said  Teresa,  looking  into  the  fire. 

"  You'll  say  I'm  a  socialist,  perhaps,  Miss," 
Strickland  added,  as  she  was  going  to  leave  the 
room,  "  but  it  isn't  that.  I  know  we  can't  all  do 
alike,  and  I  don't  mind  the  General,  if  you'll  excuse 
me,  now  I've  got  used  to  his  language.  He's  very 
thoughtful  in  some  ways,  and  it  seems  a  man's  place 
to  mess  things  about.  But  when  I  took  in  the  tea, 
and  heard  Mrs.  Carpenter  going  on  at  such  a  rate, 
and  Mrs  Manley,  too,  I  felt  like  speaking  out  when 
you  mentioned  her." 

"  How  you  do  gossip  with  the  servants,  dear 
Dicky,"  said  Susie,  who  had  heard  the  last  word 
on  her  way  to  her  bedroom,  and  called  to  Teresa  to 
help  her  to  fasten  her  dress.  "  I  never  think  it  is 
a  wise  plan." 
c 


34  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Teresa  said  nothing.  Although  she  always 
received  her  mother's  remarks  with  respectful 
affection,  due  to  the  fact  that  Susie  never  appeared 
cross  and  everything  she  said  was  incontrovertible, 
yet  very  little  that  was  not  a  definitely  expressed 
wish  penetrated  her  thoughts.  "  If  Mother  wants 
anything  done,  of  course  we  do  it,"  was  the  under- 
standing between  her  and  Evangeline,  but  they 
respected  her  power  as  a  conjuror,  rather  than  her 
wisdom  as  a  prophet.  Susie's  power  over  men  had 
been  great  in  her  youth,  and  she  had  had  much 
influence  in  the  lives  of  women,  but  no  one  had  ever 
counted  her  as  friend  or  enemy.  She  had  been  an 
article  of  faith  to  some,  of  admiration,  of  liking,  of 
amusement  or  indefinite  irritation  to  others,  but 
only  her  children  in  their  nursery  days  had  ever 
looked  to  her  as  a  help  in  time  of  trouble.  Her 
conjuring  ability  had  been  invaluable  in  the  nursery 
and  schoolroom.  Her  presence  would  always  turn 
a  crime  into  a  bubble,  and  the  indignant  nurse  or 
governess  was  compelled  to  see  her  rod  break  out 
into  the  delicate  blossom  of  divine  forgiveness  under 
her  outraged  eyes.  The  impression  of  this  gentle- 
ness remained  with  the  girls  when  they  grew  up ; 
but  that  was  all.  They  might  search  the  corners  of 
the  wonderbox  where  their  recollections  of  her  were 
stored,  and  find  nothing  that  they  could  put  together 
and  call  a  mother. 

Teresa  had  been  surprised  that  day  by  Susie's 
immediate  success  with  the  women  who  had  called. 
It  is  true  that  they  had  come  prepared  to  like  the 
Fultons,  but  they  were  in  no  way  committed ; 
and  such  all-embracing  eagerness  to  love  as  Evange- 
line showed  to  strangers  was  against  their  traditions 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  35 

It  is  one  of  the  customs  of  Millport  before  paying  a 
call  to  consider  first  the  reasons  for  the  newcomers' 
arrival.  A  well  paid  appointment  gives  them  a 
good  start,  whereas  an  indefinite  purpose  would  be 
thought  suspicious.  Second  to  be  considered  is 
their  pedigree.  If  they  can  be  traced  to  some 
source  called  "  good  connections  "  another  point  is 
scored  in  their  favour.  A  good  income  comes 
third,  and,  provided  the  rest  is  satisfactory,  adds 
greatly  to  their  favourable  chances,  but  this  item 
is  not  so  essential  as  it  used  to  be.  People  who  are 
not  at  all  nice  are  often  rich  at  the  present  time, 
and  even  furs  have  to  be  more  carefully  chosen 
than  in  the  past,  for  fear  they  may  be  the  outcome 
of  too  recent  enterprise.  But  the  thing  that  tells 
in  the  long  run  is  "  views."  The  Provinces  have 
collective  "  views "  in  a  way  that  would  be  im- 
possible in  London.  You  must  either  think  with 
the  city  or  carry  the  city  with  you.  To  live  in 
opposition  to  it  you  must  be  either  a  hermit  or  a 
fanatic ;  cease  to  love  your  neighbour  or  lose  your 
reason.  The  apostle  of  a  different  creed  from  that  of 
the  city  can  carry  the  people  with  him  some  distance 
towards  any  end-^the  best  or  the  worst — provided 
he  uses  the  old  ritual  cunningly ;  but  wolves  and 
doves  alike  must  be  dressed  in  sheep's  clothing,  or 
out  they  go. 

"  None  of  that,  now,  with  those  feathers,"  the 
city  says  to  the  intruding  dove.  "  I  know  you're 
not  a  wolf.  You  don't  need  to  tell  me  what  I  can  see. 
But  you've  got  a  beak,  and  I  wouldn't  put  it  past 
you  to  get  pecking  at  my  legs." 

But  they  received  Susie  at  once  with  open  arms. 
She  came  from  London,  which  is  always  nice ;  her 


36  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

parents  had  been  born  in  Millport  of  absolutely 
pure  wool  stock,  her  husband  had  inherited  money 
from  a  good  old  lady  before  the  war,  and  Susie  had 
only  to  appear  in  her  own  spotless  fleece  of  nice 
feeling  upon  every  subject — especially  wine — for 
them  to  cluster  round  her  with  acclamations  and 
summon  their  kind  from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
county. 


CHAPTER    III 

Miss  ARCHER,  reporter  for  the  Millport  News,  stood 
just  inside  the  first  reception-room  at  the  Town 
Hall.  There  was  a  suite  of  rooms,  leading  one  into 
the  other,  showing  a  vista  of  hats  and  baldish  heads 
and  faces  of  all  sorts  wedged  together  in  packs  or 
moving  in  a  slow  stream  with  eddies  and  cross 
currents.  The  stream  rose  in  the  great  entrance 
hall  of  the  building.  It  was  brought  by  contributory 
motors  and  broughams,  from  all  parts  of  the  town, 
suburbs  and  county,  and  it  flowed  upstairs  and 
through  the  rooms  and  down  again  through  a 
temporary  congestion  at  the  first  door  where  Miss 
Archer  stood  with  her  little  note  book.  A  middle- 
aged  woman,  mastering  fatigue  with  vivacity,  stood 
beside  her  and  made  rapid  remarks  in  an  undertone, 
pointing  out  this  or  that  noteworthy  face  or  garment. 
Her  hand  was  conspicuous  by  being  so  obviously  ill 
at  ease  in  its  white  glove.  It  was  a  worker's  hand, 
full  of  strength  and  sensibility,  and  the  sillily  cut 
glove  sat  on  it  like  a  bonnet  on  a  horse.  The 
Mayor  and  Mayoress  remained  just  within  the  big 
folding  doors  which  were  set  wide  apart,  a  footman 
planted  on  either  side.  The  footman  on  the  left 
had  nothing  about  him  to  allay  the  suspicion  that 
he  was  stuffed,  except  his  small  twinkling  eyes 
that  spoke  of  much  experience  of  humanity,  a 
family  life  of  his  own  and  knowledge  of  the  moral 

37 


38  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

difficulties  of  rich  men.  His  counterpart  on  the 
right  was  unable  to  give  way  to  the  same  luxurious 
calm,  being  compeUed  to  undergo  the  trouble  of 
repeating  strange  syllables  whispered  into  his  ear, 
such  as  "  —  siz-an-Miss-S-Arkbury,"  "  — stron- 
misses  J'n'per,"  etc. ;  if  it  had  not  been  that  he 
knew  the  names  of  the  greater  number  of  the  guests 
he  would  probably  have  broken  down  and  been  led 
weeping  to  the  nearest  public-house.  As  it  was 
he  battled  bravely  on,  and  beyond  the  momentary 
annoyance  of  the  Harburys  who  became  "  Barleys," 
and  the  Muskovilles  who  became  "  Musk-and-veal," 
and  so  on,  it  didn't  really  matter.  People  who  knew 
them  knew  them,  and  those  who  didn't  didn't  mind. 

"  Who  were  those  last,  did  you  hear  ?  "  Miss 
Archer  bent  to  ask  her  friend.  "  They're  new, 
surely ;  I  must  note  their  dresses ;  they're  very 
good.  There — the  woman  in  grey  with  sables, 
and  the  two  girls." 

"  '  Fulton  !  '  I  thought  he  said,"  answered  the 
tired  woman.  She  followed  them  with  her  eyes  to 
where  they  stopped,  looking  at  the  crowd  and 
talking  now  and  then  to  each  other.  Susie  was 
benevolently  dimpling,  as  if  the  party  were  hers, 
and  commenting  to  her  daughters  on  the  beauty  of 
the  rooms.  "  Architecture  makes  so  much  differ- 
ence to  a  building,  doesn't  it  ?  "  she  said.  "  It 
would  be  so  easy  to  spoil  a  big  place  like  this  by 
making  it  clumsy  and  in  bad  taste.  But  I  do  admire 
this  immensely,  don't  you  ?  " 

"  There's  Mrs.  Manley  gone  up  to  them  now," 
said  Miss  Archer's  friend.  "  I  tell  you — won't  they 
be  the  new  general's  family  that  someone  said  had 
come  ?  There's  some  new  arrangement  or  other 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  39 

about  the  soldiers.  I  know  my  nephew  who's  a 
territorial  said  something  about  a  General  Fulton 
coming  to  be  over  the  whole  lot  of  them  ;  not 
separated  as  they  used  to  be." 

Miss  Archer  wrote  down,  "  — in  a  distinguished 
combination  of  old  gold  and  palest  petunia,  relieved 
by  valuable  antique  buckles.  Mrs.  Slacks  looked 
well  in  mauve,  with  one  of  the  new  violet  pyramid 
hats."  "  What  did  you  say  ?  Yes,  I  should  think 
that's  very  likely.  Let  me  see.  Grey  poult  de 
soie,  isn't  it,  with  sables  ?  and  her  two  young 
daughters  (she  was  scribbling  again)  in  girlish  foam 
of  niaise  crepe  in  the  new  swallow  blue  that  has 
lately  come  into  its  own.  Yes,  that  will  do." 

"  There's  Mrs.  Carpenter  speaking  to  them," 
said  the  friend.  "  I  don't  know  how  you  are  going 
to  dish  up  that  checked  coat  of  hers  again.  I 
must  catch  Mr.  Beaver  if  I  can — he  has  just  gone 
through — and  see  if  he  will  take  the  chair  on  the 
I5th."  She  disappeared  among  the  crowd,  and 
presently  Miss  Archer  tripped  away  to  take  a  turn 
through  the  rooms  to  make  sure  she  had  omitted  no 
one  of  importance. 

"  Shall  we  find  a  table  for  you  ?  "  Mrs.  Manley 
said  to  Susie.  "  It  will  take  us  through  the  rooms 
on  the  way  and  there  are  several  people  you  must 
meet." 

A  young  woman,  dressed  with  the  touching  pride 
of  the  connoisseur  on  a  small  income,  turned  as  Mrs. 
Manley  spoke,  and  smiled  at  her. 

"  How  are  you  ?  "  Mrs.  Manley  said.  "  I  am 
showing  Mrs.  Fulton  the  lions.  If  you  want  tea 
we  could  fill  a  table.  Mrs.  Fulton,  may  I  introduce 
you  to  Mrs.  Vachell.  You  are  sure  to  meet  every- 


40  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

where.  General  and  Mrs.  Fulton  have  just  moved 
into  the  Babley's  house,"  she  explained  to  the  other. 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  I  was  going 
to  call  on  you  this  week  (she  turned  to  Susie).  Mrs. 
Babley  left  me  several  messages  for  you  about  the 
house,  small  things  that  she  thought  might  be  useful, 
but  she  didn't  want  to  bother  you  by  writing  about 
them.  I  only  came  back  from  Egypt  yesterday." 

"  Mrs.  Vachell's  husband,"  Mrs.  Manley  explained, 
"  is  the  most  distinguished  something-or-other-ist 
of  the  century,  only  I  never  can  pronounce  it." 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  We'll  leave 
it  at  that.  What  a  squash  there  is  to-day.  Do  you 
suppose  we  shall  ever  get  any  tea  ?  "  They  moved 
slowly  on,  and  Mrs.  Vachell  found  herself  separated 
with  the  two  girls. 

"  You  must  find  it  rather  dreary  being  turned 
loose  in  a  strange  town,"  she  said  almost  pityingly. 
"  Has  anyone  been  any  use  ?  " 

"  We're  quite  happy,"  said  Evangeline.  "  Do 
tell  me  why  so  many  people  come  here.  Is  a  Town 
Hall  a  sort  of  public  party  place  ?  Oh  dear,  what  a 
row  that  band  makes!  " 

"  If  we  can  get  to  the  tea  room  we  shall  be  out  of 
it,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  No,  this  isn't  exactly  a 
public  party,  but  the  Lord  Mayor  has  to  entertain 
everybody.  You  will  find  later  that  you  meet  your 
friends  here,  and  it  isn't  so  bad.  But  you  will 
probably  be  roped  in  to  make  yourselves  useful 
before  long." 

Teresa  thrilled  once  more  with  the  breath  of  the 
thing  she  sought.  "  How  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  All  sorts  of  ways.  Child  welfare  or  domestic 
training  or  inebriates— or  perhaps  imbeciles/'  Mrs. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  41 

Vachell  added,  mischievously  putting  on  an  extra 
screw  as  she  noted  the  alarm  in  Evangeline's  face 
and  the  throb  of  excitement  in  Teresa's. 

Mrs.  Carpenter  was  to  be  seen  through  the  door- 
way, pushing  slowly  towards  them,  elbowing  one, 
patronising  another  with  a  smile,  making  expressive 
gestures  to  friends  here  and  there  indicating  that  her 
task  was  nearly  impossible — but — hold  on,  little 
sheep  !  The  shepherdess  is  coming.  You  shall  have 
tea  if  she  has  to  commandeer  some  one  else's  table. 

"  I  wonder  if  you  would  mind "  she  will 

probably  say  reproachfully.  "  This  lady  ought  to 
sit  down  and  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  table.  I  think 
we  can  get  six  chairs  in  here  if  it  won't  be  pressing 
you  too  near  the  wall."  It  was  by  some  manoeuvre 
of  this  sort  that  she  did  in  the  end  plant  the  girls, 
whom  she  had  volunteered  to  find,  and  Mrs.  Vachell, 
whom  she  could  not  very  well  get  rid  of,  at  a  table 
where  Mrs.  Fulton  and  Mrs.  Manley  were  already 
seated.  The  two  elderly  ladies  who  were  there  first 
drained  their  cups  and  withdrew,  commenting  on 
the  bad  management  of  the  tea  rooms  and  the 
"  manners  of  some  people." 

Mrs.  Eric  Manley,  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Mrs. 
Vachell  occupied  positions  in  Millport  not  unlike 
those  of  the  kings  of  England  before  Alfred.  Their 
territories  were  less  defined,  their  wars  were  not  so 
bitter,  but,  as  the  history  books  say,  "  the  country 
languished  under  their  rule  and  longed  for  a  just 
and  wise  leader  to  unite  their  petty  factions  under 
his  sway."  Mrs.  Manley  ruled  over  the  Fashionable- 
who-are-charitable,  Mrs.  Carpenter  over  the  Charit- 
able-who-are-fashionable-and-educated,  and  Mrs. 
Vachell  over  the  Educated-and-incidentally-fashion- 


_;2  THREE  LOVING   LADIES 

able-and-charitable.  They  were  ripe  for  the  arrival 
of  a  visionary  like  Susie  who  should  unite  their 
people  in  the  peaceful  practices  of  Love— love  of 
architecture-and-so-on,  love  of  children,  of  all 
weathers,  of  the  poor,  "  even  those  poor  terrible 
drunken  creatures  who  have  been  taught  to  be 
wicked,"  of  "  your  own  beautiful  homes."  We  have 
anticipated  this  last  object  of  her  love.  It  became 
one  of  the  stock  phrases  of  those  speeches  which 
made  her  the  idol  of  public  meetings  in  days  to 
come. 

But  although  Destiny  was  hovering  over  the  tea- 
table,  they  knew  it  not.  Perhaps  Teresa  felt  some- 
thing of  the  fate  in  store  for  her.  Their  chairs  were 
near  a  window,  below  which  the  trams  stopped  to 
load  and  discharge  their  passengers.  The  faces 
were  there  by  the  hundred,  the  drab  clothing,  the 
mud  were  as  usual.  Did  the  scene  never  alter  she 
wondered  ?  Did  the  stream  of  people  pour  on  like 
that  under  lowering  skies  perpetually — all  day — 
Sundays — holidays,  even  through  the  night  ?  She 
had  come  from  the  crowded  streets  of  London,  but 
that  was  utterly  different.  There  was  variety,  sun- 
shine, even  leisureliness  in  the  squares  and  quiet 
places  off  the  main  traffic ;  and  besides  that,  the 
significance  of  any  individual  was  so  small  that  no 
one  could  feel  responsible  for  his  neighbour  unless 
he  were  invited  to  interest  himself.  In  Millport 
every  weary  pedestrian  seemed  to  carry  a  personal 
grudge  against  those  who  had  the  means  to  escape 
from  the  mud. 

Mrs.  Manley  was  comparing  notes  with  Susie 
on  the  eternal  subject  of  prices.  Even  cakes  made 
at  home  were  almost  too  expensive  to  eat  every  day, 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  43 

she  complained.  Her  husband  had  had  to  give  up 
keeping  a  tin  of  biscuits  at  his  office,  and  he  often 
came  home  to  tea  to  save  expense,  unless  he  had 
to  stay  and  carry  on  work  that  the  clerks  used  to 
do.  It  was  impossible  to  have  the  sort  of  entries 
one  used  to,  made  with  just  a  little  sweetbread  or 
cream  or  something ;  even  the  eggs  mounted  up 

now " 

'  Yes,  yes,  I  know,  my  dear  women,"  Mrs. 
Carpenter  interrupted,  "  but  do  you  realise  what 
it  means  to  Charity  ?  You  are  only  on  the  visiting 
committee  of  my  beloved  Institute,  you  know," 
she  smiled  at  Mrs.  Manley,  "  and  you  can  have  no 
idea.  The  very  soap  the  women  wash  with  costs 
us  £"20  a  year  more  than  it  did  ;  there  now  !  What 
do  you  think  of  that  ?  That  is  just  soap  alone." 

Mrs.  Manley  looked  a  little  contemptuous. 
"  Everyone  uses  soap,"  she  said.  "  I  have  to  deal 
it  out  at  our  orphanage  when  it  is  my  week  for  the 
store  cupboard.  But  anyhow  I  believe  there  is 
only  one  thing  that  hasn't  gone  up  and  that  is 
bi-carbonate  of  soda.  That  is  why  everybody's 
cakes  taste  of  it.  (She  glanced  at  Mrs.  Carpenter). 
How  do  you  find  things,  Mrs.  Fulton  ?  " 

"  I  try  not  to  worry  about  it,"  Susie  replied. 
Love  seemed  to  envelope  the  table  as  she  spoke, 
and  even  Mrs.  Carpenter  felt  that  she  had  not  got 
the  nail  plumb  on  the  head  with  her  last  blow. 
Mrs.  Vachell  pricked  up  her  ears.  "I  do  so  want 
those  two,"  Susie  continued  with  a  fond  look  at  her 
daughters,  "  not  to  have  all  their  young  time 
clouded  by  perpetual  half-pennies.  Of  course  we 
are  not  extravagant,  but  we  have  none  of  us  very 
large  appetites  and,  as  I  say,  I  just  try  not  to 


44  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

worry.  I  have  no  doubt  that  what  we  are  going 
through  now  is  somehow  for  the  good  of  the  world." 

Mrs.  Carpenter  drew  a  long  breath  and  turned 
back  a  piece  of  fur  at  her  wrist.  "  Of  course  we 
all  believe  that,"  she  said,  "  or  we  shouldn't  be 
here  ;  at  least  I  hope  not.  But  what  do  you  pro- 
pose, Mrs.  Fulton,  to  do  about  the  terrible  suffering 
as  it  is  ?  "  Even  the  best  accredited  lamb  in  its 
first  year  at  Millport  must  not  have  things  all  its 
own  way  in  the  fold. 

Susie's  eyes  brimmed.  "  I  think  and  think," 
she  said  earnestly,  "  but  I  can't  see  how  it  is  to  be 
avoided.  It  seems  somehow  as  if  it  was  meant, 
and  we  can  only  learn  the  meaning  by  helping 
everywhere  we  can  when  we  get  the  chance.  I 
think  some  of  the  saddest  cases  are  often  the  least 
known,  don't  you  ?  "  Mrs.  Vachell  was  taking 
an  Olympic  pleasure  in  the  new  forces  which  Susie 
was  evidently  going  to  bring  in  on  the  side  of  good 
against  evil.  She  looked  on  from  the  high  ground 
of  quicker  wits  than  her  two  sister  rulers.  She 
now  wanted  to  see  what  Susie  did  with  her  two 
daughters.  "It  is  the  younger  generation  that 
will  have  to  find  out  these  things,"  she  said,  looking 
at  the  girls. 

"  Oh,  shall  we,"  said  Evangeline,  rather  bored. 
Teresa  shrugged  her  shoulders  and  passed  the  cake. 
Mrs.  Carpenter  alone  took  up  the  challenge.  "  I 
think  girls  have  lost  all  taste  for  the  mere  pleasure- 
loving  life  they  used  to  lead,"  she  said,  "  I  know 
mine  won't  look  at  it.  '  Oh,  Mother,'  they  say, 
'  We're  so  bored  with  parties.'  They  are  all  going 
to  have  professions  and  Lena  is  going  to  do  social 
work."  Mrs.  Manley,  being  childless,  said  nothing. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  45 

"  Are  they !  "  Susie  exclaimed,  full  of  interest. 
"  How  wonderful !  I  often  thought  as  a  girl  how 
much  I  should  have  liked  to  be  something,  but  I 
never  had  a  chance  and  I  am  afraid  I  had  no  talents." 
She  dimpled  at  the  three  leaders.  "  I  could  only 
admire  and  enjoy.  We  must  really  be  going,  I 
think,  dears.  You  belong  to  the  University,  don't 
you,  Mrs.  Vachell  ?  "  she  asked  as  they  dispersed. 
"  It  must  be  so  delightful." 

"  Yes,"  Mrs.  Vachell  replied,  "  my  husband  does. 
Have  you  met  Mrs.  Gainsborough  yet  ?  " 

"  The  Principal's  wife  ?  "  said  Susie.  "  No,  she 
called  last  week,  but  I  was  out.  I  was  so  sorry." 
They  were  walking  down  the  great  staircase  by  this 
time. 

"  You  must  be  sure  to  call  on  her  At  Home  day," 
Mrs.  Vachell  warned  her,  "  or  you  will  frighten 
her.  It  is  every  Tuesday." 

"  Frighten  her  ?  "  Susie  repeated. 

"  Yes,  because  if  she  hasn't  met  you  first  she  will 
have  to  ask  you  to  dinner  without  knowing  you  and 
she  can't  bear  that.  There  she  is,  by  the  way, 
still  in  the  hall.  Will  you  come  and  speak  to 
her  ?  " 

Susie  allowed  herself  to  be  the  means  of  violently 
startling  a  massive  woman — there  is  no  other  way  to 
think  of  her—dressed  in  old-fashioned  clothes,  who 
was  peering  timidly  through  the  glass  doors  that 
opened  on  to  the  street.  She  turned  in  a  fright 
when  Mrs.  Vachell  spoke  to  her.  "  Oh !  is  that 
you !  "  she  exclaimed  thankfully.  "  I  can't  think 
why  my  cab  hasn't  come.  I  ordered  it  at  a  quarter 
past  five  and  it  is  nearly  six  now  and  it  has  come  on 
so  wet," 


- 


46  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Mrs.  Vachell  introduced  Susie  and  her  daughters 
and  slipped  away. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Mrs.  Gainsborough  again — (it  was 
her  usual  beginning) — "  so  delighted  to  meet  you — 
so  sorry  you  were  out  when  I  called.  And  these 

are  your  girls  ? — quite  so — yes "  She  relapsed 

into  silence  and  went  on  looking  helplessly  at  the 
rain. 

"  Mayn't  we  drive  you  home  ?  "  Susie  suggested. 
"  Our  car  is  there."  Mrs.  Gainsborough  threw  up 
her  hands  and  followed,  murmuring.  As  they 
drove  home  through  the  crowded,  dripping  streets, 
Evangeline  and  Teresa  crushed  suffocatingly  under 
the  shadow  of  Mrs.  Gainsborough's  knees,  Susie's 
kind  little  face  peeping  from  behind  a  bunch  of 
aged  ostrich  tips  in  Mrs.  Gainsborough's  bonnet, 
all  three  of  them  disconcerted  by  the  unusual  smell 
of  warm  eau-de-Cologne  that  filled  their  car,  very 
little  was  said.  Mrs.  Gainsborough  was  at  her 
request  left  on  the  doorstep  of  a  house,  cinnamon- 
coloured  like  the  Pultons',  at  the  corner  of  a  cinna- 
mon-coloured square.  Once  safely  on  her  own 
territory  her  nervousness  left  her,  and  her  smiles 
and  genuine  pleasure  in  the  small  service  rendered 
brought  Teresa  another  fleeting  vision  of  the  joy 
she  perpetually  sought. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MRS.  GAINSBOROUGH  soon  returned  the  hospitality 
of  Susie's  motor  by  inviting  her  and  Cyril  to  dinner. 
Her  note  was  rambling  and  agitated  like  her  manner, 
and  ended  with  a  postscript,  "  Please  bring  one  of 
your  daughters  if  she  would  care  for  it.  Emma 
will  be  so  pleased." 

Evangeline  and  Teresa  refused  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  it  when  the  letter  came,  but  Cyril  said 
with  genuine  terror  to  Teresa  when  his  wife  had 
gone  out  of  the  room,  "  Dicky,  you  must  come — 
promise  me  quick — but  don't  say  anything  about 
it " 

"  All  right,  of  course,"  she  assured  him,  "  but 
why  ?  " 

"  They're  all  schoolmasters,"  he  explained  in 
an  undertone  as  Susie  came  back.  Nothing  more 
was  said  until  breakfast  was  over  and  then  Teresa 
plunged  for  her  father's  sake. 

"  Can  I  go  to  the  Gainsboroughs',  after  all, 
Mother  ?  " 

"  If  you  like,  dear,  but  I  thought  you  said  just 
now " 

"  I  know,"  she  interrupted,  "  but — I  should  like 
to  see  the  University.  I  think  the  Gainsborough 
girl  would  like  it." 

Mrs.  Fulton  looked  suspiciously  at  her  husband. 
He  was  filling  his  cigarette  case  from  a  box  on  the 

47 


48  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

mantelpiece,  using  unnecessary  care  to  fit  them  in 
properly. 

"  Strickland  should  have  done  that  for  you,  dear. 
Are  you  off  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  presently,"  he  answered.  "I'm  not  sure 
I  can  come  to  the  Gainsboroughs,  Sue  ;  we've  some 
rather  special  business  next  week." 

"  I  think  we  ought  to  get  to  know  everybody  as 
much  as  possible,  Cyril,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  the 
girls.  And  the  University  are  the  most  interesting 
of  all.  If  you  knew  what  a  pleasure  it  is  to  me  to 
talk  about  something  besides  wine  and  money  now 
and  then  !  " 

Cyril  instantly  threw  diplomacy  to  the  winds  and 
began  to  enjoy  himself,  standing  with  his  back  to 
the  fire.  "  I  don't  want  to  be  a  kill-joy,"  he 
replied,  "  but  I  learned  more  about  those  two 
subjects  from  old  Wacks  at  Cambridge  than  I  ever 
have  since  from  anybody.  But  he  wasn't  married. 
I  daresay  the  female  dons  understand  the  use  of 
the  globes  and  all  that.  By  George  !  I  remember 
their  queer  get-ups.  Must  have  been  some  very 
deep  thinking  that  led  to  most  of  those  marriages ; 
which,  after  all,  proves  your  theory  of  the  Higher 
mind.  Let's  go,  and  take  Dicky  if  she  wants  to 
come,"  he  added  with  the  boldness  that  often  came 
to  him  suddenly  after  hunting  down  one  of  his 
wife's  insincerities. 

By  this  time  she  felt  nothing  but  an  irritable 
longing  to  get  him  out  of  the  room.  Through  the 
whole  of  their  married  life  he  had  amused  himself 
by  making  a  cockshy  of  the  sentiments  which  she 
presented  to  the  world  as  the  expression  of  her 
thoughts.  He  often  exaggerated  her  insincerity, 


49 

for  the  sentiments  were  as  much  her  own  as  any 
other  jewellery  she  might  have  bought  to  adorn 
herself.  She  admired  them  quite  as  much  as  any 
she  could  have  originated. 

"  One  of  the  children  will  come,  of  course,"  she 
said  impatiently,  "  if  Mrs.  Gainsborough  really 
wants  some  young  people.  It  is  very  kind  of  her, 
for  I  don't  suppose  you  have  the  least  idea  how  dull 
it  is  for  them,  seeing  nothing  but  soldiers  and 
business  people  who  have  nothing  to  talk  about. 
The  Gainsboroughs  are  probably  teetotallers — in 
spite  of  the  set  you  mixed  with  at  Cambridge  and 
who  had  probably  nothing  to  do  with  the  life  there. 
Most  clever  people  think  very  little  about  their 
food.  But  you  had  better  have  your  wine  at  the 
club  before  you  start  or  they  will  think  there  is 
something  the  matter  with  you.  Isn't  the  time 
getting  on  ?  That  clock  is  a  little  slow." 

When  the  time  for  the  party  came  it  turned  out 
to  be  less  of  a  feast  of  intellect  than  had  been  hoped 
and  feared  by  the  Fultons.  In  the  first  place  the 
Carpenters  were  there,  because  Mrs.  Carpenter 
was  as  difficult  to  keep  out  of  any  social  gathering 
as  was  King  Charles's  head  from  Mr.  Dick's 
"  Memorial."  If  the  festivity  were  a  heavy  duty 
for  the  cementing  of  business  connections,  Mrs. 
Carpenter  was  invited  to  lighten  the  dough  of 
wealth  with  the  ferment  of  culture.  If  it  were  a 
frivolous  affair  for  the  benefit  of  the  young  and 
thoughtless,  she  was  there  with  her  daughters. 
Hostesses  included  her  as  a  precaution  against 
any  subsequent  rumour  that  the  scene  had  been 
one  of  unbridled  licence.  "  Really,  my  dear — 
of  course  I  wasn't  there  so  I  can't  say,  but  I  believe, 

D 


50  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

etc."  If  it  were  an  ordinary  mixed  dinner,  town 
and  gown,  she  must  be  there  to  make  things  smooth 
between  everybody  ;  to  interpose  when  Mrs.  Alder- 
man Snack  was  talking  to  Professor  Cameo  about 
rabbits,  and  see  that  the  conversation  was  switched 
off  at  once  on  to  his  last  book.  She  had  read  it 
of  course  and  was  so  anxious  to  contradict  him  on 
one  point,  the  condition  of  India  before  the  mutiny. 
"  My  grandfather,  you  know,  was  there  as  a  subaltern 
and  he  always  said  he  was  convinced,  etc."  "  A 
wonderful  woman,  Mrs.  Carpenter,"  everybody  said. 
"  She  talks  so  well  upon  anything." 

Mrs.  Gainsborough,  being  so  very  nervous  as 
she  was,  of  course  had  not  settled  on  a  day  to  ask 
the  new  general  and  his  wife  until  she  had  made  sure 
that  the  Carpenters  would  come.  Mrs.  Carpenter 
had  therefore  consulted  her  little  note-book  and 
had  chosen  a  day  when  she  had  only  one  or  two 
small  committees  and  dear  Amy's  dancing  lesson 
to  attend,  so  that  she  would  be  "  nice  and  fresh  for 
the  evening."  Poor  Mr.  Carpenter,  who  was  the 
overworked  underwriter  to  an  insurance  company, 
was  not  likely  to  be  at  all  nice  and  fresh,  even  if  he 
had  a  good  twenty  minutes  to  dress  after  hurrying 
up  from  the  office.  He  could  be  trusted  to  be 
punctual,  though,  and  would  be  quite  up  to  a  little 
educated  chaff  with  anyone  of  his  own  set — Mrs. 
Vachell  or  one  of  the  Manleys — so  long  as  he  hadn't 
to  tackle  a  stranger.  He  was,  as  it  turned  out,  very 
happily  situated,  as  there  were  only  the  Vachells, 
and  Mrs.  Eric  Manley  and  her  unmarried  brother- 
in-law  and  two  young  men  for  Emma  Gainsborough 
and  Teresa.  One  was  David  Varens,  whose  father, 
Sir  Richard  Varens,  belonged  to  a  family  that  had 


THREE  LOVING   LADIES  51 

owned  land  round  Millport  for  three  or  four  hundred 
years.  Sir  Richard  had  given  money  and  land  to 
Millport  University  and  his  son  David  had  just  left 
Oxford.  It  would  never  have  done  if  Mrs.  Car- 
penter had  not  been  there. 

The  third  unmarried  man  was  Mr.  Joseph  Price, 
the  son  of  Mr.  Manley's  partner.  Eton  and  Cam- 
bridge had  recently  handed  him  back  to  the  home 
nest,  which  he  was  prepared,  with  the  backing  of 
the  Liberal  Party  and  his  father's  money,  to  re-line 
and  generally  bring  up  to  date.  The  old  birds 
were  to  be  furbished  up  and  taught  new  songs  ;  the 
young  lady  birds  from  neighbouring  nests  were  to 
be  simply  knocked  off  their  perches,  and  Londoners 
coming  to  Millport  were  to  understand  that  Millshire 
was  young  Mr.  Price's  country  seat  and  Millport 
was  his  little  village  where  he  went  to  post  his 
letters  and  chat  to  the  Mayor  at  election  time. 
You  could  even  buy  things  in  the  town  now,  he 
was  told — quite  fairly  decent ;  of  course  not  clothes 
and  all  that,  but  groceries  and  gloves  and  that  sort 
of  thing  his  mother  found  she  could  get  there  now. 
But  the  hotels  were  pretty  scandalous  sort  of 
places.  What  ?  I  should  say  so.  Lots  of  churches 
though  ;  some  quite  decent  ones  in  the  old  part 
of  the  town  if  you're  interested  in  glass  and  all 
that  kind  of  thing.  And  good  music  too ;  you 
ought  to  go  to  the  concerts  if  music  doesn't  bore 
you.  There  was  a  fellow  there  the  other  day — 
what's  his  name — came  all  the  way  from  Russia 
with  a  little  handbag — he  beat  everyone  else 
hollow — never  heard  anything  like  it — thought  his 
arm  would  come  off.  Abs'lutely  wond'f'l.  You've 
heard  him  b'fur  'n  town,  'f  course  ?  "  (I  have 


52  THREE   LOVING   LADIES 

burst  into  Mr.  Price's  way  of  speaking  for  a  moment, 
but  I  cannot  reproduce  it  perfectly.) 

This  was  to  Teresa,  whom,  owing  to  her  father's 
military  position  and  their  having  lived  in  London, 
he  was  treating  with  unusual  effusiveness.  He 
knew  Emma  Gainsborough  slightly  and  had  made 
an  honest  effort  to  talk  to  her.  He  always  tried 
to  keep  close  to  the  ideal  manner  at  which  he  aimed, 
the  manner  of  the  particular  social  pen  through 
whose  doors  he  had  been  allowed  to  squeeze  because 
of  his  politics  and  his  father's  money.  He  was 
already  getting  on  very  well  with  the  manner,  a 
sort  of  mincingly  polite  way  of  speaking,  with  the 
vowels  squeezed  slowly  out  as  if  through  a  con- 
fectioner's icing  tube,  and  laid  along  the  sentence, 
or  else  omitted  altogether ;  the  exact  opposite  to 
the  broad  flat  tones  of  his  native  habit.  The 
natural  rudeness  of  vanity  was  sugared  over  in  this 
way  to  just  the  "  right  "  effect  he  sought ;  en- 
thusiasm for  this  or  that  "  discovery,"  indifference 
to  anything  tainted  with  popularity  unless  some 
popular  thing  became  discredited  enough  in  time 
to  make  it  discoverable  as  a  new  taste. 

"  Been  doing  very  much  lately  ?  "  he  had  asked 
Emma  Gainsborough  dutifully  before  turning  his 
attention  to  Teresa  who  was  really  his  object  of 
the  evening.  "  Seen  anything  new  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't  think  I  have,"  the  poor  girl  replied, 
instantly  ill  at  ease.  Mr.  Price  observed  the  effect 
he  had  made,  and  scored  several  marks  of  superiority 
to  himself ;  it  made  him  feel  good-natured. 

"  Peewit's  brought  out  another  book,  I  see,"  he 
said,  giving  her  another  chance.  "  've  you  read 
it?  " 


"  No,"  said  Emma,  adding  hurriedly,  "  I'm 
doing  welfare  just  now  and  it  takes  such  an  awful 
lot  of  time.  I'm  too  sleepy  to  read  after  I've  been 
wading  through  statistics  all  day." 

"  Welfare  ?  Let's  see — what's  that  now  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  Price.  It  might  possibly  be  something  he 
ought  to  know  about,  though  from  the  way  Emma 
did  her  hair  he  thought  it  unlikely. 

"  Welfare  ?  Oh,  it  is  seeing  about  children — 
at  least,  my  part  is — finding  out  things  about  them 
and  seeing  what  happens  to  them  and  all  that ; 
I  can't  explain  it,  but  I  have  been  making  records 
of  imbeciles  all  afternoon."  Emma  was  reckoned 
a  humorist  in  the  family  circle  and  many  were  the 
evenings  when  her  father  and  mother  went  to  bed 
exhausted  by  their  laughter  over  things  noted  by 
her  with  a  delicacy  of  perception  few  people  would 
have  suspected.  Mr.  Price  less  than  any.  His 
"  Oh,  I  see.  Splendid  work,  I'm  sure,  but  don't 
you  get  tired  of  it  ?  "  was  followed  by  a  minute's 
horrid  silence  and  then  he  devoted  himself  with  a 
clear  conscience  to  Teresa  in  the  way  that  has  been 
described. 

Teresa's  attention  was  wandering  to  her  father, 
who  seemed  to  be  doing  very  well  with  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough. She  wondered  what  they  were  laughing 
at.  She  caught  up  Mr.  Price  at  his  short  pause 
after  the  Russian  with  the  handbag. 

"  No,  I  didn't  see  him,"  she  answered  vaguely 
"  What  was  he  doing  ?  Was  there  anything  in  the 
bag  ?  " 

Mr.  Price  was  not  very  pleased.  "  I  don't  know. 
Pro'b'ly  the  last  sponge  in  Russia,  what  ?  Don't 
you  take  almonds  ?  I  shall  eat  them  all  if  you 


54  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

don't  stop  me.  Oh,  prihsless  caat,  what  are  you 

doing  ?  come  here  and  talk  to  me "  He  broke 

off  as  Mrs.  Gainsborough's  blue  persian  stood  up 
beside  him  and,  having  pretended  to  extract  three 
or  four  long  thorns  from  his  leg,  withdrew. 

"  I  don't  mind  them  one  way  or  the  other,"  said 
Teresa,  "  but  I  want  to  know  something.  Who  is 
the  man — the  last  at  the  end  opposite — by  my 
mother  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Vachell  do  you  mean  ?  Don't  you  really 
know  him  ?  No,  that's  delightful.  He's  simply 
won'f'l  man — been  digging,  you  know — Egypt — 
didn't  you  read  about  it  ?  You  ought  to  read  the 
paper,  you  know.  He's  our  show  card.  When 
I  was  up  at  Cambridge  they  were  fairf'lly  jealous 
that  I  knew  him.  I  told  my  tutor  that  I'd  seen 
him  once  act'lly  in  pyjamas  and  he  became  quite 
respectf'l  and  let  me  off  a  lot  of  lectures  on  the 
strength  of  it.  And  then  you  live  here  and  ask 

who  he  is !  That's  really  great,  what  ?  isn't 

it  ?  You've  got  to  say  something  really  brilliant 
now  to  make  up  or  I  shall  think  you've  taken  to 
good  works  like  all  the  dear  people  here." 

"  Do  you  know  you  make  me  feel  awfully  queer," 
said  Teresa,  looking  at  him  with  puzzled  interest. 
"  What  are  you  talking  about  really  ?  I  know 
you  answered  my  question,  but  what  has  all  the 
rest  to  do  with  it  ?  Why  should  your  tutor  let 
you  off  lectures  because  you  saw  somebody  who 
lives  here  in  pyjamas  ?  I  don't  understand  a 
bit  ?  " 

"  Miss  Fulton,  it  is  quite  time  you  left  that  silly 
boy  and  gave  me  a  little  attention,"  said  Mr.  Manley, 
whom  Mrs.  Vachell  had  neglected  so  much  that  he 


THREE  LOVING   LADIES  55 

had  been  keeping  a  friendly  eye  on  Teresa.  He 
liked  the  young  and  had  understood  that  she 
was  not  enjoying  herself.  He  included  Mr.  Price 
in  what  he  said  with  a  friendly  smile  and  Teresa 
turned  to  him  gratefully. 

"  I  believe  you  are  much  more  old-fashioned  than 
you  look,"  he  said  to  her.  "  You  were  not  getting 
on  at  all  well.  You  didn't  mind  my  rudeness  ?  " 

"  No,  I  liked  it,"  she  answered.  "  I  have  met 
Mrs.  Manley  heaps  of  times,  but  I've  never  seen 
you  nor  your  brother  to  talk  to.  I  have  noticed 
since  we  came  here  that  you  may  know  people 
for  quite  a  long  time  before  you  are  even  sure 
that  they  have  a  husband.  One  has  nothing  to 
go  by  sometimes  except  the  hats  in  the  hall." 

"  We  come  back  sometimes  to  claim  them, 
believe  me,"  said  the  old  gentleman.  Teresa's 
heart  wanned  towards  him  as  the  dinner  went  on. 
His  kindliness  was  real,  untainted  by  any  wish  to 
shine  or  obtain  credit.  He  had  the  quick  under- 
standing of  ideas  half  expressed,  succeeding  one 
another  like  colour  in  changing  light,  which  alone 
makes  conversation  anything  but  a  distorted  image 
of  what  the  mind  sees.  Questions  come  so  often 
from  a  curiosity  that  wishes  to  compare  others 
with  itself  to  its  own  glorification.  Each  one  that 
Mr.  Price  or  Mrs.  Carpenter  asked  had  that  end 
in  view.  Mr.  Manley  enjoyed  his  game  of  give- 
and-take  without  that  ghostly  referee  to  balance 
the  score.  Teresa  began  to  understand  dimly 
how  it  was  that  what  Strickland  called  "  our 
leading  families  "  seemed  to  have  been  the  pious 
founders  of  Millport  in  a  way  that  no  Londoner's 
ancestors  can  claim  to  have  built  their  city.  Mill- 


56  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

port  was  the  child  of  dead  and  gone  Manleys ;  it 
was  handed  on  by  them  to  new  generations  of 
themselves  and  of  trusted  friends  who  had  watched 
over  the  early  days  of  its  growth.  Tutors,  governors 
and  servants  were  appointed  for  the  precious  thing 
with  that  personal  care  that  Teresa  found  so 
puzzling  in  the  words  "  duty  to  the  city,"  which 
recurred  constantly  in  public  and  in  private. 
Afterwards  in  the  drawing-room  Mr.  Manley  came 
to  her  again. 

"  If  you  don't  go  away  and  forget  all  our  con- 
versation," he  said,  "  come  to  me  and  tell  me  what 
you  want  to  do  and  I'll  show  you  how  to  set  about 
it.  You'll  find  my  office  hat  in  the  hall  on  Satur- 
day and  Sunday  afternoons — and  that's  the  one 
I  keep  my  ideas  in.  I'd  like  to  show  you  some 
pictures  I've  got  of  the  old  town  as  it  was  in  my 
great-great-grandfather's  time." 

I  had  meant  to  say  a  great  deal  about  David 
Varens  during  this  dinner  party.  But  Millport  has 
proved  too  strong  for  him.  It  always  must  have 
been  and  is  now  overpowering  for  the  gentle, 
detached  characters  whose  strength  is  in  enjoy- 
ment of  the  immediate  thing  that  circumstances 
have  put  in  their  way  to  be  done  as  well  as  possible  ; 
people  who  accept  inherited  comfort  and  adventitious 
pain  equally,  as  it  comes ;  who  love  and  hate  by 
instinct  without  recognition  of  any  outside  interests 
to  modify  their  decision  and  who  never  go  back  on 
a  verdict  given  by  this  tribunal  of  taste.  He  is  to 
be  Teresa's  lover  and  therefore  his  first  words  to 
her  should  have  been  recorded,  also  his  appearance, 
his  manner  and  what  they  thought  of  each  other. 


THREE  LOVING   LADIES  57 

They  should  have  begun  at  once  with  definite 
sensations  of  like  or  dislike.  But  the  truth  is  they 
hardly  exchanged  a  word.  He  sat  on  the  other 
side  of  Emma  Gainsborough  and  shared  with  Mr. 
Price  the  miasma  of  her  longing  for  the  whole 
evening  to  be  over.  He  talked  to  her  as  well  as 
he  could,  patiently  and  easily,  in  spite  of  her 
stumbles  into  pitfalls  of  silence  that  the  least  presence 
of  mind  should  have  taught  her  to  avoid.  He  re- 
trieved her  each  time  without  effort  and  set  her  on 
her  legs  again,  wondering  what  was  the  matter 
with  the  poor  girl,  supposing  she  might  feel  the 
fire  at  her  back.  He  did  once  suggest  drawing  a 
screen  further  along  behind  her  and  they  talked  for 
some  minutes  about  the  cold  of  Oxford  Colleges, 
but  she  didn't  seem  any  better  for  it  so  he  gave  it 
up.  It  is  no  use  giving  Mr.  Varens  any  more  scope 
just  now.  He  will  turn  up  in  his  glory  when  the 
time  comes. 


CHAPTER  V 

IT  did  not  need  many  months  in  Millport  to  con- 
vince Teresa  that  idleness  was  not  one  of  the  snares 
of  the  city.  She  soon  found  that  if  any  young 
person  of  the  leisured  classes  were  to  attempt  to 
"  drift  "  she  would  have  her  aimless  career  brought 
to  a  standstill  by  some  snag  of  "  duty  to  the  city." 
No  one  in  London  had  ever  reminded  Teresa  of 
her  civic  responsibilities.  On  thinking  it  over  one 
day  after  a  particularly  strong  dose  of  "  duty,  to 
the  city,"  administered  by  Mrs.  Carpenter,  she 
could  not  remember  that  the  city  of  London  and  its 
chief  magistrate  had  ever  laid  any  personal  claim 
to  her  services.  She  tried  to  imagine  any  such 
phrase  as,  "  Have  you  seen  the  Mayor  about  it  ?  " 
or,  "  What  does  Alderman  Teazle  think  ?  "  occurring 
in  her  father's  conversation  at  his  club.  It  was 
impossible.  In  those  days  no  one  knew  anything 
of  her  plans  or  her  wishes  but  what  she  told  them  ; 
in  Millport  it  seemed  that  the  very  paving  stones 
knew  who  was  walking  along  and  why,  and  that 
carrier  sparrows  flitted  from  chimney  to  chimney 
with  little  messages  of  information  about  everybody 
and  an  index  of  probable  explanations  for  their 
conduct — all  dead  certain  to  be  wrong. 

Mrs.  Carpenter  had  not  trusted  to  the  fowls  of 
the  air  to  inform  the  Fultons  that  Millport  intended 
them  to  do  their  duty.  She  gave  them  a  few 
weeks'  law,  with  full  access  to  her  own  example. 

38 


THREE  LOVING   LADIES  59 

She  never  failed  to  explain  in  the  street,  in  the 
shop,  in  the  ladies'  club,  across  the  family  pew  or 
on  the  platform  that  the  fact  of  her  being  found 
where  she  was  would  mean  the  loss  of  so  many 
heart  beats  to  the  city's  life.  She  would  say, 
perhaps,  "  I  ought  not  to  be  here,  my  dear,  but  I 
promised  dear  Mabel  Somebody  this  little  treat 
just  to  buck  her  up  after  the  new  arrival.  Fancy  ! 
I  was  there  just  two  hours  before  it  happened,  and 
my  waifs  and  strays  waiting  for  a  tin  of  biscuits 
I  had  promised  them,  and  Alderman  McWhittock's 
funeral  at  half-past  two.  I  don't  know  how  I 
ever  got  there — but  now  what  are  you  doing  here  ? 
Up  to  the  ears,  I  suppose,  getting  ready  for  the 
dance  next  week.  What  it  is  to  be  young  !  though 
I  saw  you  resting  like  a  wise  girl  at  dear  Emily's 
party.  The  men  are  so  naughty  now,  aren't  they  ? 
They  won't  dance — absolutely  won't — except  with 
their  own  old  favourites.  I  always  say  to  them 
now,  '  No,  it's  no  use.  I  am  here  to  rest  my  old 
bones  and  you  have  just  got  to  look  in  all  the 
corners  and  pick  out  the  plainest  and  dullest  thing 
you  can  find  and  send  her  home  happy.'  I  con- 
doled with  Emily  because  I  know  the  difficulties, 
and  after  all  a  dance  must  be  a  success  if  it  is  to 
be  worth  all  the  trouble,  mustn't  it  ?  Now  what 

church  do  you  go  to ?  "  etc. 

But  Susie  almost  forestalled  her  remarks.  She 
was  there  ready  equipped  by  instinct  before  the 
call  to  battle  came.  Mrs.  Carpenter  didn't  know 
what  to  think  of  it.  It  is  said  that  birds  of  prey 
have  their  own  allotted  beats  and  do  not  poach 
on  their  neighbours'  quarry ;  but  they  arrive, 
warned  by  some  secret  telegraphy  wherever  there 


is  a  vacancy  and  a  corpse.  Susie  had  evidently 
sensed  the  prevailing  occupation  of  Millport  and 
had  descended  out  of  the  blue  to  fill  a  gap  among 
the  leaders  of  good  works.  She  could  not  be  said 
to  "  take  an  active  part  "  in  anything,  because  that 
was  against  her  nature,  but  her  name  was  soon 
in  everybody's  mouth  as  a  member  of  all  the  chief 
committees  of  private  enterprises.  Strangely  shaped 
gentlemen  in  black  used  to  call  on  her  between 
meals  with  papers  and  she  listened  to  them  with 
her  gentle  smile  of  the  mother  was  has  suffered  all 
things ;  she  recognised  them  instantly  when  she 
saw  them  again  and  remembered  with  which  par- 
ticular good  work  they  were  connected ;  and  that 
is  really  quite  enough,  as  she  herself  would  have 
said.  Ladies  with  grown-up  daughters,  who  are 
obliged  to  entertain  a  great  deal  and  who  have  no 
head  for  organisation  and  so  on,  ought  to  leave  the 
running  about  to  those  who  will  do  it  so  much 
better ;  what  the  workers  need  is  sympathy. 

Evangeline  and  Teresa,  being  newcomers  from  a 
careless  place  of  comfort,  were  particularly  sus- 
ceptible to  the  unfamiliar  poison  of  depression  for 
which  there  seemed  no  cure.  The  mud,  the  damp, 
the  ugly  streets,  and  indignant,  tired  faces,  the 
grudging  service  of  the  working-classes,  the  self 
consciousness  of  the  well-to-do  who  walked  every- 
where in  the  limelight  of  recognition,  the  sharp 
division  between  those  who  thought  everything 
was  all  right  because  they  were  comfortable  and 
those  who  thought  everything  was  all  wrong 
because  they  weren't — all  this  made  the  girls 
restless. 

A  vision  of  Hyde  Park  Corner  on  a  sunny  day 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  61 

used  to  haunt  Evangeline's  mind.  She  contrasted 
the  space  of  it,  the  blue  sky,  the  buildings — "  polite 
buildings  "  was  the  description  that  came  to  her 
as  she  recalled  their  appearance,  perfectly  groomed, 
keeping  their  private  life  absolutely  to  themselves. 
She  felt  a  sudden  hatred  for  the  rows  of  pert  little 
dwellings  that  she  saw  all  round  ;  "  brick  trim- 
mings !  "  she  thought  with  disgust  as  her  eye  fell 
on  the  oblongs  and  stars  and  cubes  inlaid  in  musty 
red  on  a  background  of  livid  ginger.  There  was 
nothing  polite  about  them  ;  they  seemed  positively 
loquacious  about  themselves  and  their  trimmings 
and  the  nice  people  that  lived  in  them.  Horrid 
houses,  she  thought. 

Teresa,  though  she  did  not  know  it,  was  dis- 
tilling for  herself  a  sort  of  love  potion  from  the 
drabness  and  hostility.  As  she  once  said  to  her 
sister,  the  smells  and  the  mysterious  purpose 
behind  the  faces  in  the  fog  intoxicated  her.  All 
that  she  knew  about  what  she  felt  was  that  an 
insistent  passion  was  dragging  her  towards  some 
end  that  she  could  not  see.  The  interest  that  she 
found  in  her  conversations  with  Strickland  gave 
her  a  clue  towards  the  direction  from  which  know- 
ledge of  her  desire  was  coming  to  her,  and  gave  her 
relief  from  the  excitement  at  the  same  time  because 
Strickland  had  no  grievance  against  society ;  she 
only  disliked  people — ladies  especially — talking 
"  through  their  hats  "  about  work.  For  instance, 
she  did  not  mind  Cyril  or  Teresa  being  untidy, 
because  "  it  was  their  place  to  leave  things  about  " 
and  she  was  paid  to  look  after  them.  They  never 
referred  to  her  duties  nor  seemed  to  think  about 
them.  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Susie  implied  by  their 


62  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

manner  that  they  were  selected  by  Providence  to 
lead  comfortable  lives  for  the  reason  that  every 
one  of  their  common  attributes  of  humanity,  such 
as  their  legs  and  their  brains,  were  of  such  superior 
quality  that  their  births,  their  lives  and  their 
deaths  must  not  be  confused  with  similar  occurrences 
in  other  houses.  Work  !  Of  course  they  knew  all 
about  work !  Did  they  not  exhaust  themselves 
in  explaining  how  early  rising  and  attention  to 
detail  actually  saves  labour  ?  If  you  clean  a  room 
thoroughly  every  day  there  is  no  need  to  turn  it 
out  once  a  fortnight ;  if  you  clear  up  as  you  go, 
wipe  the  plates  with  paper  and  burn  it  directly  to 
avoid  clogging  the  sink,  and  if  you  wear  gloves  for 
the  roughest  work  and  put  glycerine  on  the  hands 
after  washing,  there  should  be  at  least  two  clear 
hours  in  the  afternoon  for  mending  stockings  or 
even  making  clothes.  That  was  the  point  where 
Strickland  became  "  horn  mad,"  as  she  said.  "I'd 
sooner  earn  me  money  by  being  starved  and  scolded 
as  me  mother  was,"  she  declared,  "  than  have  it 
explained  that  there's  nothing  to  complain  of. 
I'd  rather  have  it  all  wrong  and  keep  my  liberty 
to  object." 

"  But  Strickland,"  Teresa  interrupted,  "  don't 
you  remember  when  you  first  came  you  said  you 
wouldn't  be  blasted  by  father  and  you  were  going 
to  leave  ?  " 

'  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  and  so  I  should  have  if 
he  had  made  out,  as  some  do,  that  it  was  all  a 
misunderstanding.  But  when  I  saw  that  it  was 
just  his  way,  as  you  said,  and  he  wasn't  aware  of 
it,  you  will  understand  that  it  was  no  business  of 
mine  and  I  didn't  object.  There's  never  anything 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  63 

personal  about  the  General's  language,  I  will  say 
that  for  him.  It  seems  it's  his  nature,  like  my 
brother." 

She  took  no  notice  of  Evangeline,  neither  liked 
nor  disliked  her.  "  She's  a  young  lady  that  will 
marry,"  she  observed,  "  and  change  her  servants 
and  not  notice  who  comes  and  goes  nor  how  the 
work  is  done.  She  won't  make  much  of  a  house, 
but  no  doubt  she'll  keep  a  housekeeper  and  not 
notice  how  the  money  goes.  She'll  always  be  a 
favourite  with  the  gentlemen.  My  brother's  wife 
is  like  that.  You  never  saw  such  a  house — and  the 
mess  !  I  often  tidy  it  all  up  for  her  and  it's  all  the 
same  next  day.  And  yet  he  thinks  the  world  of 
her  and  keeps  out  of  the  public  house  so  as  he  can 
take  her  about.  And  my  cousin  Gladys  is  just 
the  opposite ;  everything  tidy  and  as  it  should  be, 
but  she'll  talk,  talk,  talk  the  whole  day,  pointing 
out  what  she's  done  ;  and  her  husband  has  taken 
to  drink  ;  he  can't  stand  it,  he  says." 

Strickland  was  right.  Evangeline  was  already 
proving  her  capacity  for  being  a  favourite  with  the 
gentlemen  by  penetrating,  one  by  one,  Captain 
Hatton's  well-ordered  defences.  Being  her  father's 
A.D.C.  he  was,  as  he  had  warned  them  on  the  first 
morning,  so  much  about  the  house  that  he  preferred 
they  should  not  notice  him  ;  but  then  as  Cyril 
counterwarned  him,  "  they  were  a  damned  noticing 
family." 

Captain  Evan  Hatton  had  always  been  shy  of 
women  because  as  a  passionately  serious  little  boy 
he  had  been  for  ever  baited  by  a  pair  of  lively  young 
sisters.  They  meant  not  an  atom  of  harm,  but 
neither  were  they  at  all  interested  in  abstract  good- 


64  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

ness,  which  together  with  mechanisms  of  any  kind 
were  Evan's  consolation  for  the  trials  of  family 
life.  He  wanted  with  all  his  soul  to  know  what 
made  wheels  (including  those  of  the  Universe)  go 
round.  Nature,  which  he  admired,  completely 
outwitted  him  there  and  he  developed  towards  the 
Maker  of  the  Universe  the  passionate  respect  of 
pertinacious  inquiry  incessantly  baffled.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  out  from  time  to  time  the  ele- 
mentary rules  governing  earthly  wheels,  but  the 
vastness  of  the  world  (as  he  had  glimpses  of  it 
through  the  life  of  his  tame  rabbits,  the  beauties 
of  a  well-kept  garden,  geography  lessons  and  the 
upheaval  of  his  own  mind),  kept  him  in  a  ceaseless 
ferment  of  questioning.  The  most  industrious 
organ  must  rest  sometimes  ;  so  at  about  fifteen  years 
old  he  admitted  himself  beaten  by  the  Higher 
Inquiry.  He  rested  his  poor  mind  in  worship  of 
that  which  he  had  questioned  in  vain,  and  concen- 
trated his  efforts  on  wheels  which  could  be  explained 
by  those  who  made  them.  His  sisters  thought  all 
this  very  funny  indeed.  They  themselves  approved 
of  the  Universe  as  a  first-rate  place  to  live  in ;  it 
looked  so  charming,  with  hills  and  fields  and  woods 
all  of  nice  colours.  Winter,  spring,  summer  and 
autumn  were  all  nice  in  their  way  and  could  not  be 
improved.  The  idea  of  tropical  storms  and  polar 
silence  and  danger  made  it  seem  all  the  more  cosy 
in  England.  Machinery  was  a  delightful  invention 
and  they  were  glad  it  had  been  discovered,  because 
it  brought  all  sorts  of  comfort  within  reach  and 
gave  one's  brothers  something  suitable  to  do. 
They  did  laugh  sometimes  when  Evan  took  a  really 
good  thing  to  pieces  and  couldn't  put  it  together 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  65 

again  or  when  he  got  in  such  a  bait  about  Emily 
giggling  at  the  missionary.  When  the  war  broke 
out  they  stopped  laughing  at  him  at  first.  He 
was  suddenly  lifted  in  their  estimation  from  the 
position  of  a  dear,  ridiculous  creature  to  that  of 
"  our  brother  in  France,"  a  god  among  Olympians — 
"  while  we  have  got  to  stick  at  home."  They 
worked  creditably  and  humbly  at  home  and  when 
he  came  back  they  forgot  his  ribbons  in  the  agitating 
question  whether  Emily's  cooking  would  still  do  or 
whether  they  ought  not  to  scrape  up  £50  somehow 
and  get  that  kitchenmaid  who  was  leaving  the 
club. 

When  they  began  to  get  used  to  having  him  at 
home  again  they  noticed  that  what  had  been  only 
serious  attention  to  rectitude  in  the  old  days  now 
burned  hot  in  him  as  passionate  morality.  They 
were  good  girls,  secured  from  evil,  if  he  had  known 
it,  by  their  happy  natures.  They  would  have 
thought  it  very  silly  to  let  a  man  kiss  them  unless 
he  were  an  accepted  lover,  properly  engaged ; 
because  where  would  be  the  point  in  being  scrubbed 
by  a  hairy  face ;  unless  it  were  one  of  the  poor 
darling  boys  leaving  Victoria,  and  then  of  course 
one  would  hug  any  stranger.  That  is  enough.  We 
know  the  girls  quite  well  now.  There  is  nothing 
at  all  the  matter  with  them,  quite  the  contrary. 
But  their  brother's  heavy  sense  of  responsibility 
for  their  souls  was  as  much  wasted  as  if  he  had 
been  Joan  of  Arc  hiding  an  unexpurgated  edition 
of  Shakespeare  from  the  cat.  All  the  mistakes 
he  had  made  about  his  sisters  he  repeated  with 
every  woman  he  met  afterwards.  He  was  wrong 
every  time  because  the  attention  he  gave  to  their 


66  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

conversation  was  of  the  same  kind  as  he  would 
have  given  to  a  machine  that  didn't  interest  him — 
if  any  such  machine  could  be  imagined — a  musical 
box  perhaps.  Now  everyone  knows  what  happens 
to  even  the  cheapest  fiddle,  still  more  to  a  bird,  if 
its  music  is  courted  in  that  way.  His  sisters  saved 
him  from  disaster  by  affectionate  amusement  that 
asked  nothing  of  him.  He  offended  a  great  many 
other  women,  but,  to  return  to  the  simile  of  the 
fiddle,  their  discords  meant  as  little  to  him  as 
their  harmonies,  so  he  learned  nothing  from  his 
failures. 

Then  suddenly  fate  confronted  him  with  Evan- 
geline,  who  also  wanted  to  know  how  wheels  went 
round  and — oh,  the  poor  fellow !  my  heart  bleeds 
for  him — the  wheels  she  was  interested  in  were 
those  of  love  and  creation  and  human  nature ; 
and  poor  industrious  Hatton,  who  only  wished 
for  righteousness  and  good  machines,  was  put 
into  her  hands  to  take  to  pieces.  It  is,  as  has  often 
been  observed,  a  cruel  world  in  many  ways. 

Evangeline's  mother  had  also  been  on  the  track 
of  true  love  in  her  youth  ;  her  story  has  been 
written.  But  a  world  of  difference  lay  between 
them,  for  Susie  had  wanted  to  possess  love  and 
had  studied  to  be  all  things  to  all  men  to  gain  it, 
giving  nothing  in  return  ;  her  daughter  wanted  it 
in  order  to  give  it  away,  as  another  lavish  nature 
might  ask  for  wealth  to  spend. 

"  Captain  Hatton  is  less  like  an  umbrella  than 
he  used  to  be,  don't  you  think  ?  "  she  said  one  day 
to  Teresa  as  they  walked  home  through  the  Park. 
"  When  I  go  riding  with  him  he  often  stops  being 
polite  and  tells  me  about  the  tanks.  Yesterday  he 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  67 

told  me  about  men  out  at  the  war  who  had  visions. 
You'd  never  think  he  was  that  sort  of  man,  would 
you  ?  " 

"  I  never  think  much  about  him,"  said  Teresa, 
"  I  just  think  of  him  as  a  table  that  Father  has 
brought  in  to  work  at." 

"  I  know  he  doesn't  talk  to  everyone,"  said 
Evangeline  proudly.  "  He  never  talked  to  his 
sisters." 

"  Well,  what  do  you  do  to  him  ?  "  Teresa  asked. 

"  I  don't  know.  I  just  went  on  bravely  and 
wouldn't  be  put  down.  I  was  sure  there  must  be 
something  somewhere  and  I  wanted  to  know  what 
it  was.  He  has  a  wonderful  face,  if  you  look  at  it. 
His  eyes  look  so  suffering  sometimes,  like  something 
in  a  cage.  I  was  sure  he  couldn't  be  all  ribs  and 
the  best  waterproof  twill  really.  I  said  to  him  once 
at  the  Manleys'  dance,  when  we  were  sitting  out," 
she  went  on  after  a  pause,  "  '  You  know  we  can't 
always  go  on  pretending  that  you  are  a  pair  of 
trousers  and  a  coat  and  I  am  a  bag  with  flounces 
propped  up  on  two  chairs.  I'm  a  person  and  so 
are  you.  We  must  have  heaps  and  heaps  of  things 
to  talk  about.  Do,  for  goodness'  sake,  let  one  of 
us  go  ahead ' — I  really  worked  myself  up.  I  felt 
I  just  would  smash  into  that  propriety." 

"  And  what  happened  ?  "  her  sister  asked. 

"  He  got  red  at  first  and  didn't  answer  and  I 
got  awfully  frightened.  Then  he  said  in  quite 
a  natural  voice,  '  If  you  will  behave  just  as  you 
like  I  will  try  not  to  put  you  off.  It  is  very  kind 
of  you  to  trouble  about  me.'  Rather  as  if  I  were 
a  dog  that  he  had  been  asked  to  exercise.  However 
it  was  a  beginning,  and  now  he  starts  off  by  him- 


68  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

self.  I  think  the  great  thing  is  that  he  doesn't 
regard  me  as  a  girl." 

"  What  does  he  think  you  are,  then  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  A  sort  of  inferior  Tommy  I 
should  think  ;  uneducated  but  harmless,  and  quite 
useless.  I  might  be  his  batman,  marooned  with 
him  in  a  desert  full  of  baboons." 

"  It  sounds  very  unlikely,"  said  Teresa.  "  You 
have  a  very  muddled  head,  Chips,  and  you  read 
such  a  lot  of  scraps  that  I  believe  it  makes  you 
worse  ;  but  you  explain  yourself  quite  clearly.  I 
shall  be  interested  to-morrow  when  I  see  that 
stuffed  back  at  the  breakfast  table.  Father  would 
be  amused." 

"  You  are  not  to  tell  him,"  said  Evangeline 
quickly. 

"  I'm  not  going  to.  At  least  I  might  have  if  you 
hadn't  told  me  not  to.  Why  don't  you  want  him 
to  know  that  his  man  is  nicer  than  we  thought  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  except  that  I  discovered  him 
and  I  don't  want  to  show  him  to  people  ;  he's  not 
nearly  ready.  And  besides,  he  is  like  having  a 
sitting-room  of  my  own.  I  like  a  retreat  that  no 
one  else  knows  the  way  to." 

"  Is  Hatton  in  the  house  by  any  chance  ?  "  Cyril 
asked  one  day  when  he  came  in  to  tea. 

"  I  don't  know  at  all,  dear,"  said  Susie.  "  I 
should  think  very  likely  ;  he  generally  is." 

"  He's  helping  Chips  to  wash  Tricot  in  the  bath- 
room," said  Teresa. 

Cyril  stopped  in  the  act  of  filling  his  pipe.  "  H'm," 
he  remarked.  "  Hereditary  instinct,  I  suppose. 
Poor  fellow." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  69 

"  I  know  by  your  face  that  you  mean  something 
unkind,  Cyril,"  said  his  wife,  "  but  I  don't  see  how 
even  you  can  make  out  that  there  can  be  anything 
hereditary  about  washing  a  dog." 

"  Not  if  there's  only  one  person  to  do  it,"  he 
replied.  He  was  holding  a  match  to  the  tobacco 
and  went  on  explaining  between  puffs.  "  But 
when  Hatton,  who  is  a  nervous  fellow — begins 
washing  poodles  with  your  daughter — your  own 
little  girl — who  isn't  generally  fond  of  work — I 
seem  to  see  the  young  Eve  adorning  herself  with 
the  leaf  of  experiment  just  as  Mother  did.  Have 
you  ever  seen  a  young  chicken  begin  to  scratch 
the  moment  it  leaves  the  egg  ?  It  isn't  imitation, 
because  it  does  it  just  the  same  if  it  is  raised  in  an 
incubator." 

Teresa  looked  anxiously  amused  as  a  mother 
does  whose  favourite  child  is  not  behaving  well  in 
a  drawing-room,  but  Mrs.  Fulton  was  smarting 
under  old  sores.  She  said  coldly,  "  Perhaps  you 
would  finish  washing  Tricot,  dear  Dicky.  You  had 
better  tell  Captain  Hatton  that  your  father  wants 
him." 

"  Don't  be  silly,"  said  Cyril.  "  I  don't  want 
him.  I  told  him  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do 
this  afternoon  and  as  I  didn't  see  him  at  the  Polo 
ground  and  found  his  hat  in  the  hall  when  I  came 
in  I  remembered  the  story  of  Adam  and  thought 
I'd  ask,  that's  all." 

Teresa  had  gone  out  while  he  was  speaking. 

"  May  I  ask  if  you  never  want  the  girls  to  marry  ?  " 
Susie  asked. 

"  Lord,  no,  I  don't  care,"  he  replied,  "  but  what's 
that  got  to  do  with  Hatton  ?  I  was  only  joking. 


70  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

I  suppose  he  knows  all  about  washing  dogs.  I 
expect  he  likes  it.  And  Chips  doesn't  know  the 
business  as  well  as  you,  Sue ;  she  won't  construe 
a  wag  of  the  tail  into  an  offer  of  marriage.  Hatton 
is  a  very  upright  man.  He'd  probably  consult 
you  first  and  lay  out  his  plans  on  paper  in  the 
approved  style." 

"  Well,  if  he  did  I'm  sure  I  don't  know  what  I 
should  say,"  she  answered  thoughtfully.  Cyril 
had  once  explained  to  a  bewildered  friend,  "  The 
great  charm  of  an  argument  with  Sue  is  that  you 
never  know  which  part  of  a  conversation  she  will 
choose  to  take  the  trick  with.  You  may  find  that 
the  only  lie  you  have  told  for  years  is  used  as  an 
ace." 

"  I  mean,"  she  went  on,  "  that  I  don't  think 
Evangeline  ought  to  be  encouraged  to  act  hastily. 
I  like  Mr.  Varens  so  much  better  than  Evan  Hatton. 
He  will  probably  come  into  his  father's  place  very 
soon." 

"  Great  Scott !  "  exclaimed  Cyril,  really  startled 
at  last.  "  Has  Varens  asked  her  after  dining  here 
once  ?  What  in  heaven's  name  possesses  the  poor 
devils  !  But  I  oughtn't  to  talk  I  suppose." 

"  Don't  be  so  absurd,  Cyril.  I  never  said  he  had 
proposed  to  her.  I  only  meant  that  she  hadn't 
had  time  to  consider  him." 

"  Wliat  do  you  mean,  '  consider  him  ?  ' 

"  I  merely  took  Mr.  Varens  as  an  instance.  I 
don't  want  her  to  be  pushed  into  liking  Evan  Hatton 
just  because  she  hasn't  had  time  to  think  of  any 
other.  Ill-considered  marriages  are  often  so  re- 
grettable." 

"  If  I  were  a  woman,"  said  Cyril,  "  I  should  say 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  71 

that  I  didn't  know  whether  to  laugh  or  cry  at  the 
tilings  you  say.  Unlace  me,  Emmeline,  and  give 
me  some  more  tea — have  you  got  any  ?  "  He 
passed  his  cup. 

"  But  do  you  see  what  I  mean,  Cyril  ?  "  she 
persisted. 

"  Oh,  I  see  all  right,"  he  replied.  "  My  eye 
wants  shading  if  anything  ;  it's  positively  dazzling, 
the  light  that  you  throw  on  matters  of  the  heart. 
It's  a  pity  you  never  met  Darwin.  He  wrote  on 
natural  selection,  but  I'm  not  sure  that  he  mastered 

the  subject.  You  might "  He  stopped  as  the 

door  opened  and  Evangeline  came  in  with  Captain 
Hatton. 

Evan  glanced  at  his  general,  who  was  peacefully 
sunk  in  an  armchair,  playing  with  the  cat.  Tricot, 
the  poodle,  followed  into  the  room  and  walked  about 
shaking  himself  restlessly  as  if  he  missed  something. 

"  That's  all  right,  old  Tricot,"  said  Cyril.  "  Come 
here  and  talk  to  Pussy  ;  she's  your  friend." 

Tricot  came  in  innocent  confidence,  and  the 
usual  recriminations  between  him  and  the  cat  began. 

"  It  is  funny,  if  you  notice,  that  dogs  are  all  for 
love  and  cats  all  for  marriage,"  said  Cyril  thought- 
fully, "  and  the  two  together  are  always  chosen  to 
represent  domestic  life — at  least  the  ill-considered 
domestic  life  that  you  were  talking  about,  Sue.  I 
suppose  it's  handed  on  for  generations." 

Evan  Hatton  did  not  hear.  He  was  at  the 
window  with  Evangeline,  trying  to  make  her 
understand  the  principle  of  a  magneto.  "  Here's 
Emma  coming,"  she  announced  presently  from  the 
window.  "  She's  getting  off  the  tram.  Do  you  want 
her,  Dicky  ?  " 


7*  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"I'm  going  out  with  her,"  Teresa  answered. 
"  She  said  she  would  come." 

"  Where  on  earth  to  at  this  time  ?  " 

"  She  has  got  a  place  where  children  go  after 
school ;  she  said  she  would  take  me." 

"  I  do  wish  she  wouldn't  wear  that  hat,"  Evan- 
geline  said  critically,  watching  Emma  as  she  came 
up  the  garden  path.  "  I  wonder  where  good 
milliners  go  to  when  they  die.  They  never  seem 
to  mix  with  good  people  in  this  world." 

Captain  Hatton's  face  reddened  and  he  turned 
away  from  the  window. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?  "  asked  Evangeline.  "  Are 
you  going  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  answered  shortly  and  then  he  said 
good-bye  and  left  the  room.  He  nearly  ran  into 
Emma  in  the  hall,  so  great  was  his  haste  and  his 
preoccupation.  "  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  apolo- 
gised. "  How  could  I  have  been  so  stupid.  Did 
I  knock  your  hat  ?  "  for  she  had  put  up  her  hand 
to  straighten  it. 

"  Captain  Hatton  !  "  Evangeline  called  over  the 
bannisters,  "  are  you  coming  riding  before  breakfast 
to-morrow  ?  " 

"  If  you  wish  me  to,"  he  answered  unsteadily 
and  waited  for  a  moment  while  Emma  ran  upstairs. 
But  Evangeline  only  replied,  "  All  right,  eight 
o'clock  then,"  and  disappeared,  and  he  heard  the 
girls'  laughter  in  the  drawing-room.  He  let  him- 
self out  and  spent  the  evening  and  most  of  the 
night  walking  along  the  sea  shore. 

"  That's  an  unlucky  hat  of  yours,  Emma,"  said 
Evangeline  when  she  went  back  to  the  drawing- 
room.  "  I  believe  there's  a  devil  in  it.  We  had 


one  row  about  it  before  you  came  up."     She  went 
off  singing. 

Teresa's  elusive  desire  had  begun  to  show  itself 
openly  to  her  since  she  met  Emma  Gainsborough. 
She  had  been  allowed  at  last  behind  the  curtain 
where  the  faces  that  haunted  her  in  the  streets 
were  no  longer  imaginary  characters  in  a  scene 
at  which  she  looked  on  as  a  spectator.  She  began 
to  know  individual  Tommys  and  Gordons  and 
Gladyses  and  Victorias,  Mrs.  Potter  and  Mrs. 
Jason  ;  to  understand  why  Mr.  Potter  was  out  of 
work  and  what  it  meant  to  half-a-dozen  lives  when 
Mr.  Jason  brought  home  only  a  fraction  of  his 
earnings.  She  saw  disease  for  the  first  time.  She 
met  pleasure  and  wit  and  obscenity  and  tragedy 
jostling  familiarly  together  without  prejudice  or 
distinction,  engendered  by  all  possible  unions  of 
hunger,  love,  jealousy,  optimism,  sensuality,  pride, 
gentleness,  patience,  brutality,  callousness,  kind- 
ness, ambition,  hopelessness,  fidelity,  in  all  possible 
conditions  of  filth  or  heartrending  strife  with 
squalor ;  intelligence  burning  indomitably  in  fogs 
of  prejudice  and  lies  and  stupidity.  She  had  torn 
the  veil  which  the  faces  in  the  street  seemed  to 
draw  down  between  Mrs.  Carpenter's  "  duty  to 
the  city  "  and  some  vital  secret  that  the  city  kept 
to  itself.  The  passionate  love  of  fellowship  that 
had  tormented  her  with  its  insistence  and  eluded 
her  by  its  formlessness  had  taken  shape  in  the 
places  that  Emma  and  her  leaders  were  patiently 
trying  to  remake,  and  now  she  thought  of  little 
else. 


CHAPTER   VI 

IF  Evangeline's  campaign  against  Evan  Hatton's 
prejudices  had  been  a  public  war,  the  supporters  of 
either  side  would  have  seen  that  the  end  was  now 
drawing  near.  Optimists  among  the  Evangelineites 
would  have  rubbed  their  hands  and  said  that  she 
had  got  the  forces  of  his  harsh  morality  fairly  on  the 
run  ;  the  pessimists  would  have  prophesied  (though 
admitting  Evangeline's  strength)  that  the  struggle 
would  break  out  again  as  soon  as  peace  was  signed. 
The  Evanites  would  either  have  declared  that 
Morality  was  going  to  the  dogs  and  was  being  sold  by 
Self-interest  and  Pleasure,  or  they  would  have 
prepared  to  retreat,  still  fighting,  to  the  height  of 
"  A  Strong  Man's  Influence,"  and  determined  to 
reorganise  for  a  new  offensive  when  the  enemy 
should  be  weakened  by  marriage. 

An  important  battle  took  place  during  the  ride 
that  Evangeline  had  arranged,  when  Evan  retreated 
after  her  flippancy  on  the  subject  of  dead  milh'ners. 
He  called  for  her  and  brought  her  horse  from  the 
livery  stable  at  eight  the  next  morning,  and  they 
rode  away  in  that  state  of  silent  tension  which 
precedes  an  explanation  when  two  people  who  care 
for  each  other  have  parted  in  offence.  Evangeline 
tried  hard  to  make  him  "  start  talking  by  himself," 
as  she  had  boasted  to  Teresa  that  he  was  now  in  the 
habit  of  doing.  She  tempted  him  with  proof  that 
she  had  absorbed  his  lecture  on  the  magneto  and 

74 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  75 

was  mistress  of  its  difficulties.  She  threw  him 
touching  confidences  about  her  plans  in  little  every- 
day matters.  But  all  in  vain.  At  last  her  temper 
rose  slightly. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  she  asked. 
"  Are  you  angry  with  me  ?  " 

"  I  have  no  right  to  be  angry  with  you,"  he 
answered  with  emotion,  "  but  I  don't  understand 
you,  and  yet  I  know  that  you  are  good  and  could  be 
great.  Why  do  you  pretend  to  be  like  the  others 
and  say  things  that  are  unworthy  of  you  ?  " 

Evangeline  was  overawed.  "  What  things  ?  " 
she  asked  timidly. 

"  It  was  a  silly  trifle,  and  I  know  I  am  a  fool — 
but  it  made  me  hot — what  you  said  about  good 
milliners  not  associating  with  good  people  in  this 
world.  Emma  Gainsborough  is  giving  her  life  to 
God's  work  as  readily  as  the  saints  gave  theirs — 
she's  a  Crusader  if  you  like — and  you  make  paltry 
fun  of  her  hat.  There  now  !  I  suppose  you  won't 
speak  to  me  again." 

"  Yes,  I  shall,"  said  Evangeline.  "  If  you  will  not 
shut  yourself  up  into  that  dreadful  silence  you  may 
say  anything — absolutely  anything.  You  make  me 
see  such  a  long  way  when  you  talk.  I  read  the 
papers  by  myself  and  get  into  such  knots  because  I 
can't  see  any  connection  between  different  things. 
But  when  you  hurl  me  about  from  Emma's  hat  to 
the  Crusaders,  who  I  thought  were  people  who 
fought  in  nightgowns  and  red  crosses  with  a  feather 
in  their  helmets  and  defeated  the  heathen — why — 
let  me  see,  where  am  I  ? — well  you  see  how  exhilar- 
ating it  is  !  I  feel  as  if  my  mind  had  been  galloping 
miles  in  the  fresh  air  in  new  places." 


76  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Great  heavens,  what  a  child  you  are  !  "  he  said, 
looking  at  her  in  wonderment.  Then  he  smiled 
and  held  out  his  hand.  "I'm  sorry,"  he  said. 

Evangeline  shook  it  heartily.  "  So  am  I,"  she 
assured  him.  "  And  will  you  show  me  how  to  take 
the  car  to  pieces  next  time  Father  lets  you  off  ?  " 

"  Nonsense,  he  won't  want  it  taken  to  pieces," 
said  Evan.  "  What's  the  good  of  that  ?  " 

"  Just  to  see  the  wheels,"  she  begged.  "  And 
then  I  should  be  so  useful  if  anything  went  wrong." 

"  No,  you  haven't  got  any  mechanical  sense," 
he  argued.  "  I  can  see  that.  You  understand  a 
theory  when  I  tell  it  you,  but  when  it  comes  to 
putting  it  into  practice  you  don't  think  a  bit.  I've 
watched  you  learning  to  drive  ;  you  do  it  all  by  the 
book." 

"  Well,  what  should  I  do  it  by  ?"  she  asked. 

"  Common  sense  and  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  reason  for  everything.  The  fact  that  any  part 
of  a  machine  does  so-and-so  isn't  enough  ;  you  must 
know  why,  and  what  will  be  the  result  if  it  doesn't 
act,  and  then  you  must  treat  it  so  that  it  will  act." 

"  Oh,  dear,"  she  said.  "  There's  the  sun  coming 
out !  Let's  gallop  while  there  is  grass." 

It  is  superfluous  to  follow  this  love  episode  any 
further.  I  have  met  ladies  who  are  always  passion- 
ately anxious  to  know  "  what  he  said  "  when  a 
girl  announces  her  engagement,  and  who  need  no 
encouragement  to  tell  in  return  "  how  John  did  it." 
But  I  am  all  against  emotional  indecency,  and  unless 
any  private  conversations  in  this  book  have  to  be 
recorded  in  the  interests  of  research,  or  are  betrayed 
by  the  genial  indiscretions  of  sympathy,  they  will 
be  omitted.  Evan  is  the  last  person  who  would 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  77 

wish  anything  to  be  said  of  him  in  that  moment 
when  Nature,  who  had  always  laughed  at  his 
attempts  to  make  her  acknowledge  the  sovereignty 
of  such  Divine  Rule  as  he  was  able  to  imagine, 
pushed  Evangeline  into  his  arms  and  commanded 
him  to  take  her  or  suffer  the  pains  of  hell. 

He  saw  no  reason  to  refuse.  But  the  end  was 
not  yet,  though  it  had  become  inevitable.  Evan 
had  reserves.  Evangeline's  gallant  forces  had  a 
tough  time  of  it  before  they  won.  Suspicion  was 
the  hardest  to  beat  down  ;  Evan's  sisters  had  helped 
to  make  that  so  strong.  He  reviewed  his  bonny 
black  doubts  every  day,  and  led  them  out  against 
Evangeline's  joys.  But  there  was  all  the  difference 
in  the  world  between  his  sisters'  cheerfulness  and 
hers.  Their  pleasure  in  life  was  that  of  mice  in  a 
granary,  hers  was  that  of  a  rush  of  invaders  over 
a  rich  country  ;  she  wanted  all  there  was.  Her 
assurance  that  God  loves  His  world  was  invincible. 
Evan's  doubts  suffered  casualties  that  put  them  out 
of  action  ;  but  for  a  happy  marriage  they  should  all 
have  been  dead.  The  smallest  remnant  of  a  strong 
army  is  dangerous. 

These  battles  went  on  unobserved  by  Cyril. 
Susie  noticed  and  said  nothing,  because  she  knew 
that  unasked  advice  to  a  girl  precipitates  a  crisis, 
and  she  hoped  in  secret  that  Evangeline  loved  her 
freedom  too  much  to  do  what  her  mother  would  call 
"  anything  rash,"  such  as  binding  herself  in  marriage 
before  she  had  reviewed  all  likely  candidates.  As 
weeks  went  on  she  became  more  anxious.  There 
was  a  look  of  settled  happiness  about  Evangeline 
that  was  not  what  you  would  expect  of  a  young 
girl,  Susie  said  to  herself.  It  is  a  mistake  to  wear 


78  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

the  heart  on  the  sleeve.  One  of  the  great  joys  of  her 
own  girlhood  had  been  the  security  of  living  behind 
a  veil  of  misty  sweetness  that  allowed  the  public 
free  scope  for  their  imagination  of  what  might  be 
behind  it  and  yet  committed  her  to  nothing.  Mis- 
understandings had  arisen  in  that  way  but  she  had 
not  suffered  and  those  who  had  done  so  had  only 
their  own  imaginations  to  blame.  She  still  made 
use  of  the  veil,  and  the  only  person  who  made  her 
feel  nervous  about  it  was  Cyril.  He  had  the  knack 
of  twitching  it  away,  and  never  tired  of  the  joke, 
which  seemed  to  compensate  him  for  the  nothingness 
he  exposed.  In  one  way  only,  her  disappointment 
about  Evangeline's  choice  was  a  good  thing  to  her. 
She  felt  it  as  a  revenge  on  her  husband  for  his 
cynicism  about  women  and  the  jibes  he  aimed  at 
her  about  their  duplicity  towards  men.  "  Perhaps 
he  will  see  now,"  she  said  to  herself — her  very  soul 
bridling  at  the  Spirit  of  Man — "  that  they  do  need 
protection  after  all.  If  he  really  cared  for  her  I 
could  have  discussed  it  with  him  and  he  could  have 
got  another  A.D.C.  until  this  had  blown  over.  As 
it  is,  it  must  just  go  on,  and  I  can't  prevent  it — with 
the  man  here  all  day  while  the  sons  of  rich  people 
are  sitting  on  office  stools,  shuffling  oats  and  sugar 
through  their  fingers.  Why  can't  some  of  them 
come  and  ride  with  her  and  show  her  their  motors  ? 
And  I  suppose  Dicky  will  marry  a  rent  collector 
with  a  wooden  leg,  or  a  socialist  who  stands  on  a 
chair  and  wants  to  take  away  our  money."  Her 
thoughts  wandered  into  all  sorts  of  bitter  pos- 
sibilities, not  at  all  in  keeping  with  the  maxim  that 
"  if  everyone  were  happy  and  contented  everything 
would  come  right,"  which  she  brought  in  so  delight- 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  79 

fully  at  Mrs.  Carpenter's  little  informal  conferences 
on  social  reform.  "  Mrs.  Fulton  is  so  original  in 
what  she  says,"  was  a  remark  constantly  made. 
But  true  it  was  that  she  thought  differently  at  the 
moment.  Circumstances  alter  cases,  as  she  so 
often  said. 

Because  of  this  grievance  of  hers  against  him, 
Cyril  was  not  told  of  her  fears,  and  in  due  time 
Evangeline's  battle  was  won.  Evan  frowned  on  the 
tattered  remnant  of  his  doubts  and  bade  them  go 
home.  He  went  in,  his  heart  stumbling  and  stopping, 
to  the  study  where  Cyril  was  asleep  after  a  day's 
hunting,  and  shut  the  door. 

Cyril  came  down  early  before  dinner,  and  found 
Evangeline  reading  the  evening  paper  in  the  drawing- 
room. 

"  Hullo,"  he  said. 

"  Hullo,  dear,"  she  replied,  and  went  on  reading. 

"  So  you  and  Hatton  have  fixed  it  up,"  he  began. 
Evangeline  put  down  the  paper,  and  looked  up  at 
him. 

"  Is  that  all  right  ?  "  she  asked.  "  You're  not 
cross,  are  you  ?  " 

"  No,  I'm  not  cross,  my  dear,"  he  said,  as  if  he 
were  thinking  of  something  else.  "  I  suppose  you 
wouldn't  tell  me  any  more,  would  you  ?  Why  you 
really  want  him,  for  instance." 

"  Yes,  I  would,  of  course,"  she  answered  readily. 
"  I'd  tell  you  anything — though  that's  not  true, 
because  I  told  Dicky  weeks  ago  that  he  was  getting — 
oh  well,  you  know — quite  tame — and  she  thought 
you  would  be  pleased,  but  I  wouldn't  let  her  tell 
you  because — I  didn't  want  to  spoil  it." 

"  H'm,"  said  Cyril. 


8o  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  I  mean  I  liked  feeling  that  none  of  you  knew 
him  properly." 

"  H'm,"  said  Cyril  again. 

"  WeU,  what's  the  matter  ?  " 

"  A  powerful  apple,"  he  observed.  "  Power,  my 
dear  child,  power." 

"  Oh,  Father,"  she  sighed,  "  you're  not  going  on 
again  about  that  dreadful  old  Eden,  are  you  ?  I 
do  wish  no  one  had  ever  told  you  the  story.  You 
think  women  are  always  tempting  men  to  this 
day." 

"  So  they  are  when  it  comes  to  marriage,"  he 
asserted.  "  Don't  you  make  any  mistake  about 
that." 

Evangeline  felt  desperate,  as  if  she  were  caught 
and  entangled.  "  Do  you  mean  that  men  never 
fall  in  love  with  them  ?  "  Tears  gathered  in  her 
eyes.  She  had  had  some  weary  work  at  the  last 
stand  of  Hatton's  doubts,  and  now  her  father,  whom 
she  loved  and  believed  in  as  a  friend,  was  going  to 
take  the  top  off  the  morning  of  her  happiness. 

Cyril  understood  and  repented.  "  No,"  he  said, 

"  Hatton  loves  you — but "  he  looked  at  her 

inquiring  face  and  decided  to  revise  what  he  was 
going  to  say.  "  Have  you  ever  heard  of  spontaneous 
combustion  ?  It's  a  troublesome  thing,  but  I  should 
have  more  faith  in  your  sex  if  they  suffered  from  it 
in  their  emotions.  They  think  too  hard  for  my 
taste.  But  that's  all.  Hatton  is  the  devil  of  a 
hard  thinker  himself,  so  you  had  better  leave  him 
to  scratch  his  head,  and  say,  '  yes,  dear,'  like  your 
mother  does  when  I  give  her  the  benefit  of  my 
wisdom.  Then  all  you  need  is  to  go  out  and  do 
just  the  opposite,  and  say  afterwards  that  that  was 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  81 

what  you  thought  he  meant.  Don't  incense  him 
at  the  time,  is  the  great  thing.  '  The  Housewife's 
Vade  Mecum/  as  I  read  somewhere,  or  '  Little  Polly's 
first  steps  in  efficiency '."  He  kissed  her  on 
his  way  across  the  room  to  turn  on  some  more  light. 
"  Just  to  wish  you  luck,  dear,  and  to  show  there's 
no  ill-feeling." 

He  returned  to  the  fire  and  drew  up  a  chair.  "I'm 
in  favour  of  marriage  for  all,  myself,"  he  went  on, 
"  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  never  mind  the 
reason,  but  get  on  with  the  event  itself.  The  advent 
of  little  ones  is,  after  all,  the  only  thing  that  matters, 
as  your  mother  explained  to  me.  And  that  was  you, 
Chips.  There  was  a  devil  of  a  row  before  you 
turned  up." 

"  Oh,  did  you  and  Mother  quarrel  ?  "  she  asked, 
very  much  surprised. 

"  You  can't  call  a  one-sided  thing  exactly  a 
quarrel,"  he  said.  "  No  one  but  a  man  could 
quarrel  with  me." 

"  Couldn't  they  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  No.  But  your  mother  is  very  powerful  in  the 
way  I  was  describing  ; " 

Susie  came  in  just  then.  Cyril  had  told  her  while 
they  were  dressing  that  Evan  had  "  put  in  a  claim 
as  consort  for  Chips ;  which  just  bears  out  what  I 
said  this  style  of  architecture  would  lead  to  when  we 
came ;  except  that  he  isn't  wealthy.  In  fact,  he 
has  very  little  except  his  pay." 

Susie  took  the  line  that  this  was  "  all  that  could 
be  expected  in  a  place  where  people  think  so  much 
of  money  that  they  never  leave  their  offices  till  it  is 
time  to  go  to  bed." 

'  That  ought  to  make  them  all  the  more  anxious 

F 


82  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

to  marry,"  he  remarked,  "  or  else  how  can  they 
enjoy  any  intellectual  conversation  ?  " 

"  Of  course  you  will  twist  everything  I  say  to  a 
coarse  standpoint,  Cyril,"  she  said,  "  because  those 
sort  of  cheap  jokes  are  so  easy  to  make." 

"  Where's  the  joke  ?  "  he  asked,  putting  on  his 
coat.  '  Honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense/  as  the  leaders 
of  taste  remind  us." 

Susie  made  no  answer,  but  closed  the  door  between 
their  rooms,  and  she  did  not  go  down  until  dinner 
was  announced. 


CHAPTER   VII 

AMONG  the  people  who  called  on  Susie  from  Mr. 
Price's  Paradise,  the  county,  was  Lady  Varens, 
David  Varens' s  stepmother.  Sir  Richard  and  Cyril 
were  admirably  suited  to  one  another  because  the 
old  man  was  a  sportsman  by  nature  and  practice. 
He  had  had  an  adventurous  youth  and  "  mercifully," 
as  Cyril  said,  "  forgotten  the  details.'  Then,  on 
his  father's  death,  he  came  back  to  Millshire  and 
managed  the  estate  with  the  same  thoroughness 
that  had  brought  him  success  in  less  peaceful 
enterprises.  He  married  first  a  guest  of  one  of  his 
hunting  neighbours.  She  was  lying  unconscious 
on  a  bank,  with  her  horse  grazing  beside  her,  when  he 
saw  her  for  the  first  time  ;  and  when  he  had  brought 
her  round  and  taken  her  home  and  called  every 
other  day  to  ask  how  she  was  it  seemed  natural  to 
regard  her  as  his  own  property.  She  died  when 
David  was  nine,  and  Sir  Richard  married,  two  years 
afterwards,  a  lady  whom  he  thought  to  have  been 
unjustly  divorced  from  a  drunken  old  peer  who  had 
married  her  from  the  schoolroom. 

She  was  good  to  David  and  kept  her  own  counsel, 
so  Millshire  allowed  her  to  carry  on  the  tradition 
of  Varens  hospitality ;  in  fact  there  was  an  extra 
piquancy  about  her  parties  owing  to  the  opportunity 
they  gave  for  a  little  private  skeleton  hunting  among 
intimate  friends.  Towards  the  following  Christmas, 

*3 


84  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

while  Evangeline  was  staying  with  Evan's  sisters, 
Sir  Richard  invited  Cyril  to  take  a  day  or  two's 
hunting  with  him  and  stay  over  the  week  end. 
Lady  Varens  hoped  that  Mrs.  Fulton  would  come 
too,  and  bring  her  daughter,  to  hunt  or  not,  as  she 
liked.  Evangeline  being  away,  Teresa  was  torn 
from  her  heart's  delight,  the  alleys,  the  rotting 
garrets  and  the  dingy  clubs  where  she  groped  all 
day  for  the  scattered  remnant  of  what  seemed  to 
her  the  lost  birthright  of  the  bottom  class,  their 
right  to  the  fellowship  of  common  desires  and  tastes 
with  the  people  who  filled  her  mother's  drawing- 
room. 

"  What  is  the  good  of  this  eternal  talk  about  all 
men  being  able  to  reach  any  position  they  are  fitted 
for,  if,  when  you  come  across  the  most  lovable 
people  in  that  class,  you  can  hardly  bear  to  sit  with 
them  for  five  minutes  because  of  smells  and  anxieties 
and  habits  that  shut  them  off  like  a  cage  that  they 
didn't  make  themselves  and  can't  get  out  of  ?  "  she 
asked  Emma  Gainsborough. 

"  We  are  trying  to  get  them  out,"  said  Emma. 

"  I  know,"  Teresa  answered,  "  but  I  don't  see 
how  you  can  unless  you  kill  Mrs.  Carpenter."  She 
and  Mrs.  Carpenter  had  perhaps  the  same  end  in 
view  when  they  worked  among  the  dismal  crowds 
that  swarmed  in  the  mud  and  hideousness  of  the 
poorer  quarters,  but  to  the  casual  observer  it  looked 
as  though  the  "  charity  ladies,"  as  Strickland  called 
them,  were  under  the  impression  that  in  their  promo- 
tion of  health  and  virtue  they  were  pressing  some- 
thing new  on  somebody  who  had  never  heard  of  it, 
while  Teresa  hoped  to  restore  a  treasure  that  had 
been  lost  by  past  generations, 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  85 

Her  own  experience  was  showing  her  that  the 
cage  door  gives  way  before  devotees  who  will  suffer 
the  violation  of  everything  that  makes  life  sweet 
to  them  for  the  sake  of  what  they  hold  dearer,  and 
she  also  learned  the  freemasonry  of  hard  work ; 
the  point  where  she  stuck  was  the  apparent  im- 
possibility of  ever  bridging  the  gulf  between  Mrs. 
Carpenter  and  Mrs.  Potter.  How  to  wean  Mrs. 
Carpenter  from  the  idea  that  the  social  order  was 
all  right  because  she  was  on  the  bright  side  of  it, 
and  at  the  same  time  convince  Mrs.  Potter  that  it 
was  not  all  wrong  because  she  was  on  the  dark  one  ? 
As  one  of  Emma's  friends  pointed  out,  twenty 
centuries  had  passed  since  the  only  serious  attempt 
had  been  made  to  bring  about  an  understanding 
between  the  ancestors  of  those  two  irreconcilable 
ladies.  The  best  spiritual  engineering  had  been 
carried  on  ever  since  along  the  lines  then  laid  down  ; 
communications  had  been  devised  and  traffic  of  a 
sort  carried  on.  But  as  soon  as  Mrs.  Potter  advanced 
a  little  and  caught  sight  of  Mrs  Carpenter  and  went 
for  her,  bald-headed,  and  when  Mrs.  Carpenter 
sailed  along  from  her  end  of  the  bridge  and  then  sat 

down  and  sang  to  Mrs.  Potter .  I  must  stop 

this  allegory  or  the  reader  will  break  down  in  tears 
of  perplexity  and  perhaps  send  the  book  straight 
back  to  the  library ;  unless  he  has  himself  lived 
for  a  time  miserably  wedged  between  the  philan- 
thropists and  the  slums  of  a  city. 

To  get  on  with  the  story.  Teresa  was,  as  I  have 
said,  torn  from  her  absorbing  occupation  and  com- 
pelled to  go  with  her  father  and  mother  to  be  the 
Varens'  guest  at  Aldwych  Court. 

I  believe  there  is  no  place  so  comfortable  to  stay 


86  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

in  as  an  English  country  house  belonging  to  a  good 
hostess.  The  luxury  of  dressing  in  any  part  of  her 
room  without  the  penalty  of  gooseflesh ;  the  deep, 
scented  bath  and  warm  towel  three  feet  square  ; 
the  rich,  dry  fluffiness  under  foot,  and  the  cup  of  tea 
afterwards,  brought  by  a  maid  who  seemed  to  have 
nothing  else  to  do,  banished  all  visions  of  Mrs. 
Potter  to  such  a  remote  corner  of  Teresa's  conscious- 
ness that  when  she  did  remember  her  again  the 
recollection  had  no  more  sting  than  a  bad  dream. 
She  ate  her  dinner,  served  by  willing  men  and 
women  who  performed  their  duties  like  priests  of 
Isis,  instead  of,  as  dear  Strickland  did,  giving  her 
the  uneasy  feeling  that  one  course  would  have  been 
quite  enough  if  ladies  were  not  so  greedy.  She  had 
observed  sometimes  to  Evangeline  that  Millport 
maids  treated  their  mistresses  as  if  they  were  parrots 
whose  dirty  cages  had  to  be  cleaned  out,  and  whom 
it  "  took  up  people's  time  "  to  feed. 

David  Varens  is  to  play  his  part  on  the  stage  now, 
but  there  is  to  be  no  sudden  change  in  the  music 
to  waltz  time,  nor  cries  of  the  villagers,  "  But  here 
comes  the  Prince  !  Gay  and  dancing,  bright  and 
prancing,  sing  we  now  our  welcome,"  nor  will  the 
light  fade  and  moon  children  glide  out  from  under 
trees  and  sit  upon  their  mushrooms  while  he  sings, 
"  Queen  of  the  dusk  and  lodestar  of  my  dreams." 
He  comes  on  like  Cyril's  millionaire,  "  walking  quite 
unaffectedly  "  among  a  number  of  ordinary  people. 
It  was  not  until  Teresa  and  her  mother  went  away 
on  Monday  that  she  began  seriously  to  prefer  him 
to  Mrs.  Potter.  It  may  be  difficult  for  anyone  who 
is  unacquainted  with  the  love  of  Beauty  for  the 
Beast  to  understand  what  a  disappointment  it  was 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  87 

to  her  to  find  that  her  heart  had  betrayed  her  and 
was  transferring  its  allegiance  to  a  normal  object. 
It  was  something  between  childish  terror  of  the  sea 
and  the  remorse  of  a  pilgrim  whose  prayers  have 
grown  cold  that  followed  on  the  joy  his  presence 
gave  her.  "  How  happy  I  am.,"  she  thought,  and 
then,  as  a  ghostly  voice  demanded  the  truth,  she 
added,  "  and  I  don't  care  a  hang  what  Mrs.  Potter 
is  doing." 

There  were  other  people  staying  in  the  house,  but 
she  did  not  notice  them  and  no  more  need  we.  Lady 
Varens  and  Susie  talked  and  knitted  and  drove,  and 
Lady  Varens  liked  Susie,  because  it  was  impossible 
not  to  on  a  slight  acquaintance,  and  Susie  liked 
Lady  Varens  because  there  was  mystery  about  her 
and  she  had  great  charm,  with  her  soft  eyes  that 
saw  much  and  told  nothing,  and  her  sensitive  mouth 
whose  utterances  led  to  conversation,  but  also  told 
nothing.  Susie  admired  in  her  the  ideal  woman, 
and  "  we  are  so  much  alike  "  was  what  she  chiefly 
thought  of  her.  Cyril  enjoyed  his  hunting  and  sat 
up  late  in  the  smoking-room. 

"  I  hope  you  will  come  and  see  us,  Mr.  Varens," 
said  Susie  before  they  left.  "  Your  mother,  I  know, 
hardly  ever  leaves  this  lovely  place,  and  no  more 
should  I  if  it  were  mine.  But  I  know  you  do  come 
into  town  sometimes.  We  can  always  give  you 
lunch  and  it  will  be  such  a  change  to  hear  about 
the  beautiful  country  things  in  the  middle  of  all 
our  ugliness  ;  I  never  get  used  to  it.  I  shall  be  so 
anxious  to  hear  whether  that  dear  black  cow  gets 
all  right  again.  Cows  are  such  mothers,  you  know  ; 
one  feels  so  sorry  for  them  having  to  be  parted  from 
those  sweet  calves.  You  are  going  to  manage  the 


88  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

estate  now,  Sir  Richard  told  me.  How  delightful 
that  will  be,  and  what  a  saving  of  anxiety  to 
him." 

"  Yes,"  said  David,  "  I  come  in  two  or  three  times 
a  week  to  the  University.  Perhaps  you  would  let 
me  come  one  of  those  days,  may  I  ?  Thanks  very 
much." 

He  took  Teresa  through  the  woods  that  morning. 
She  said  less  than  usual,  and  presently  he  noticed 
this.  "  You  look  worried,"  he  remarked.  "  Is 
anything  wrong  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  that  you  can  call  it  wrong,"  she 
answered,  "  but  I  feel  almost  sick  at  the  thought  of 
going  back  to  Emma  Gainsborough  and  her  office. 
It  doesn't  seem  any  use  from  here.  I  was  bent  on 
teaching  music  to  Albert  Potter  the  day  I  came,  and 
now  I  want  to  turn  him  into  a  calf  or  a  frog.  What 
is  the  good  of  Emma  going  on  sending  different 
kinds  of  splints  for  him  and  telling  Mrs.  Potter  how 
to  put  them  on  ?  The  money  I  have  eaten  since  I 
came  here  would  have  saved  him  from  getting  like 
that  a  year  ago." 

"  Look  here,"  said  David  seriously,  "  I  have  been 
along  that  road  while  I  was  at  Oxford,  and  it  leads 
nowhere,  except  into  a  sort  of  maze  where  you  lose 
yourself  and  die  for  want  of  a  fresh  argument.  If 
I  had  ideas  I  would  come  down  to  your  place  and  do 
what  you  are  doing  for  as  long  as  you  wanted  me, 
but  I  haven't  got  any  ideas  and  I  have  got  fields — 
or  rather  my  father  has,  and  can't  look  after  them 
as  he  used  to — and  I  am  going  to  see  what  is  to  be 
got  out  of  them." 

"  I  have  neither  ideas  nor  fields,"  she  said,  "  but 
I  had  an  enormous  family  when  I  left  home  last 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  89 

week,  and  now  I  have  been  happy  and  forgotten 
them." 

"  Did  you  forget  them  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Yes,  quite,"  she  answered  sadly. 

"  Then  you  can't  really  care  for  them  enough  to 
succeed,"  he  said.  This  struck  Teresa  a  blow. 
"  Don't  you  ever  forget  your  farms  and  things  ?  " 
she  asked,  "  not  for  a  minute  ?  " 

"  No,  except  when  I'm  asleep  or  hunting." 

"  Hunting  !  my  hunting  is  done  down  there,"  she 
said  illogically. 

"  Then  where  are  your  farms  ?  " 

"  Oh,  blow  !  "  said  Teresa. 

"  All  right.  Well,  when  will  you  come  back  here  ?  " 

"  When  I  can't  bear  any  more  committees  of 
the  charitable.  I  wish  you  could  see  Mrs.  Carpenter. 
Do  you  remember,  she  was  at  the  Gainsboroughs 
the  night  you  were  there  ?  " 

"  Was  she  ?     I  forget.     What  like  ?  " 

"  Like  an  hour  glass,  in  pink — with  the  sand  quite 
solid." 

"  I  didn't  notice.  I  couldn't  make  your  Miss 
Gainsborough  talk,  that's  all  I  know.  Is  there 
anything  the  matter  with  her  ?  " 

"  Dear  me,  no,"  she  answered  in  surprise.  "  She's 
very  amusing  when  you  know  her.  Mr.  Price  got 
her  into  such  a  state  of  nerves.  He  did  me,  too. 
Do  you  understand  him  ?  " 

"  No,  but  I  think  he  is  only  trying  to  mix  society  ; 
just  what  you  want  to  do  with  Mrs.  Potter.  If 
you  encourage  her  you  ought  to  encourage  him." 

Teresa  looked  at  him  to  see  whether  he  was 
laughing,  but  they  had  come  to  a  stile  and  he  was 
waiting  politely  for  her  to  get  over.  Instead  of 


90  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

climbing  she  sat  down  on  it  and  faced  him.  "  It 
is  absolutely  different,"  she  began  to  explain. 
"  What  I  can't  bear  is  to  find  people,  who  would  be 
just  like  you  if  they  had  been  sent  to  school  and 
fed,  unable  to  express  themselves  and  living  in  such 
horrible  places  that  one  can  hardly  attend  to  what 
they  are  trying  to  say  because  of  the  awfulness. 
And  it  is  nonsense  to  say  that  they  can  always  get 
out.  All  self-made  men  say  afterwards  that  they 
were  newsboys,  but  there  are  thousands  of  darling 
newsboys  who  haven't  got  just  the  bit  of  extra 
that  made  Dick  Whittington  ;  and,  as  my  mother 
says,  purring  among  her  furs  on  a  platform,  '  they 
are  often  taught  to  be  bad.'  She  does  talk  such 
rot,  and  yet  often  her  platitudes  wouldn't  be  so 
telling  if  they  were  not  made  up  over  a  small  piece 
of  truth.  There  is  nothing  like  that  about  that 
dreadful  man  Price ;  is  there  now  ?  Come,  speak  up." 

"  He  wants  to  get  into  a  better  set  and  explain 
himself,"  said  David. 

"Nonsense,"  answered  Teresa,  "not  a  better  set 
at  all ;  only  a  more  fashionable  one." 

"  Well,  but  you  say  that  your  set  isn't  any  better 
than  Mrs.  Potter's,  only  more  fashionable.  If  that 
is  so  then  Mrs.  Potter  is  a  snob  like  Price.  But 
if  you  claim  some  other  advantage  that  you 
want  Mrs.  Potter  to  share,  why  shouldn't  Price  be 
sensitive  about  having  been  born  outside  a  set  that 
claims  to  be  better  than  his  own  ?  " 

"  I  wish  I  could  get  someone  who  has  as  much 
'  lip '  as  you  have  to  talk  to  you,"  said  Teresa.  "  I 
can't  do  it,  but  I  know  you  are  wrong." 

"  Your  Potter  vocabulary  is  beyond  me,"  said 
David  politely. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  curtain  now  goes  up  on  Evangeline's  marriage. 
It  took  place  six  months  ago.  Cyril  has  a  new 
A.D.C.  with  a  fluffy  wife  and  blue-eyed  child ;  all 
three  as  happy  as  grigs.  His  name  is  Jimmy 
Trotter — (the  Trotters  of  Burnside)  and  she  was 
Miss  Fripps  of  Ely,  a  daughter  of  the  famous  Dean 
Fripps.  Cyril  doesn't  mind  Trotter,  who  does  his 
work  all  right,  and  Mrs.  Trotter  is  always  good  fun 
at  a  party,  though  Susie  thinks  she  is  rather  empty- 
headed,  and  can't  understand  how  she  can  afford 
a  nurse  like  that  for  the  baby ;  it  would  be  much 
more  sensible  if  she  looked  after  it  herself,  and  got 
a  really  nice  girl  to  take  charge  in  the  afternoon. 
Mrs.  Trotter  thinks  not,  as  she  does  not  believe  in 
nice  girls  and  prefers  to  save  money  by  doing  the 
cooking  in  which  she  is  expert  and  let  the  baby  have 
the  whole  attention  of  a  woman  whom  she  can 
trust.  She  doesn't  believe  in  making  oneself  a 
premature  fright  by  being  a  Jack-of-all-trades. 
They  have  recurrent  arguments  on  this  question  and 
Susie  gets  the  worst  of  it,  for  Mrs.  Trotter  disposes 
of  platitudes  as  she  would  of  kitchen  refuse,  without 
a  moment's  thought  whether  there  may  not  be 
diamonds  among  them.  Therefore,  Susie  says  she 
is  empty-headed,  and  does  not  care  to  see  more  of 
her  than  politeness  demands. 

And    you   should   see    Mrs.    Trotter   mimicking 
91 


92  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Mrs.  General "  to  the  wives  of  Cyril's  staff,  all 
of  whom  she  knows  intimately  !  Of  course  it  got 
round  in  time  to  Susie  through  Mrs.  Carpenter,  who 
heard  of  it  from  the  wife  of  the  Staff-Captain,  who 
was  rather  keen  on  getting  into  the  University  set. 

Evangeline  was  happy  at  this  time,  living  at  a 
place  we  will  call  Drage,  where  Cyril  had  got  Evan 
an  appointment.  He  found  there  several  men  who 
had  been  with  him  in  the  trenches.  Their  recollec- 
tions pictured  him  as  a  man  who  had  been  of  the 
greatest  value  as  an  unfailing  joke ;  a  good  joke, 
too,  for  you  never  knew  when  it  mightn't  blow  you 
sky  high.  It  was  always  worth  while  raising  him 
when  you  had  a  lot  to  think  of,  because  his  explo- 
sions of  temper  were  entertaining  enough  to  take 
your  mind  off  any  unpleasantness.  And  he  was 
such  a  thoroughly  good  fellow  ;  would  do  anything 
or  go  anywhere,  and  his  mechanical  genius  had 
earned  their  admiration  and  gratitude  for  many 
improvised  good  things.  Hicks  remembered  him 
taking  a  Hun's  watch  to  pieces  in  his  dug-out  and — 
the  story  that  followed  was  always  a  success.  It 
preceded  his  arrival  at  Drage,  and  Evan  found  every- 
one pleased  to  welcome  him  and  his  wife. 

Evangeline's  enthusiasms  and  her  naivete  were 
soon  the  talk  of  the  place.  Some  of  the  women 
regarded  her  as  a  fool  and  some  as  "  a  very  dashing 
young  person."  She  certainly  was,  as  Strickland 
had  prophesied,  "  a  favourite  with  the  gentlemen." 
There  is  a  pose  of  free  speech  and  free  living  that  is 
as  closely  bound  by  its  self-imposed  limits  as  any 
other  doctrine,  and  it  is  particularly  false  because 
the  naturally  free  have  never  heard  of  freedom ; 
as  Cyril  would  have  pointed  out,  "  it  was  knowledge 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  93 

of  the  damned  thing's  existence  that  made  Eve  a 
slave  to  propriety."  Evangeline's  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil  was,  as  we  have  seen,  gathered  almost 
entirely  from  the  newspapers,  and  was  therefore 
negligible.  So  she  thought  freely  (which  is  different 
from  being  a  free  thinker)  and  Evan,  who  had  eaten 
his  apple  with  attention,  was  scandalised,  and  the 
ladies  of  Drage,  who  wore  their  aprons  merely 
as  a  class  distinction,  cutting  them  long  or  short 
or  leaving  them  off  altogether,  as  fashion 
dictated,  were  astonished  at  her  behaviour. 
Indeed  when  her  instincts  did,  as  she  once  hoped 
they  would,  "  burst  with  a  pop  in  the  sun  "  of 
experience,  she  loved  creation  with  a  generosity 
that  might  have  led  her  into  all  sorts  of  trouble 
had  she  been  as  faithless  a  woman  as  her  mother. 
She  was  fascinated  by  the  idea  of  having  a  child  of 
her  own,  "  a  brand  new  person,  whom  no  one  has 
ever  seen  before,  conjured  from  the  vasty  deep," 
she  said  (with  some  school  recollection  of  a  quotation 
connected  with  impressive  magic).  She  adored 
Evan  as  the  god  behind  the  machine  and  lost  a 
great  deal  of  the  interest  in  his  character  that  had 
made  her  take  pride  in  his  reluctant  confidences. 
Splitting  hairs  in  argument  about  sin  seemed  to  her 
an  absurd  waste  of  time  when  it  was  clear  that  no 
one  would  bother  to  sin  if  he  were  happy  ;  and  who 
could  be  other  than  happy  when  the  war  was  over 
and  a  new  generation  coming  into  life  ?  Evan's 
friends  enjoyed  her  hospitality  in  peace,  for  she 
never  teased  them  by  the  militant  chastity,  provok- 
ing but  unyielding,  which  turns  many  a  good  bride 
into  a  firebrand.  The  average  Englishman  does  not 
often  engage  in  illicit  love  affairs  unless  they  are 


94  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

offered  him  ;  so  Evangeline's  lack  of  decorum  was 
regarded  as  a  new  and  perfectly  innocent  game. 
Evan,  with  his  explosive  seriousness,  had  been  a 
first-class  jest  in  the  old  days,  and  here  he  was  back 
again,  married  to  some  one  just  as  funny  in  an 
opposite  way,  and  the  two  together  were  simply 
splendid.  The  jokers  were  never  tired  of  setting 
the  one  against  the  other  in  public,  without  an  idea 
that  differences  of  opinion  could  hold  any  danger  for 
two  people  so  obviously  in  love.  They  relished  the 
stories  that  went  round  about  Evangeline's  latest 
indiscretions  and  told  how  shirty  old  Evan  had  been 
and  how  the  two  had  gone  off  together  afterwards 
talking  all  the  way  and  you  could  bet  she  got  it 
properly  in  the  neck  when  they  reached  home.  One 
evening,  these  mischief  makers  who  had  egged  on 
Evangeline  to  persuade  poor  old  Hicks  to  do  his 
Fiji  dance,  with  young  Blake  lashed  to  a  chair  in  the 
character  of  a  maiden,  went  home  to  bed  in  the 
highest  spirits,  and  left  Evangeline  and  her  husband 
alone. 

"  I  shall  chuck  my  job  at  once  and  leave  here  if 
you  ever  encourage  that  sort  of  thing  again,"  he 
said,  standing  in  front  of  the  embers  of  the  fire 
that  had  made  the  little  room  so  cheerful  earlier 
in  the  evening.  He  had  put  young  Blake's  chair 
back  into  its  place  with  a  savage  push,  and  was  now 
winding  up  the  string  that  had  been  broken  in  the 
final  ecstasy  that  brought  the  house  down. 
Evangeline  stared  at  him  with  round,  startled 
eyes.  "  Darling  Evan,"  she  said,  "  it  was  a  game. 
What  on  earth  is  the  matter  ?  " 

"  It  was  outrageous.  If  you  had  ever  been  among 
savages "  he  stopped,  speechless. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  95 

"  But  I  haven't,"  she  argued.  "  That's  just  it. 
I  want  to  know.  It  was  fascinating.  I  felt  as  if 
I  were  the  girl  and  he  were  getting  nearer  and 
nearer — it  was  gloriously  exciting.  And  anyhow — 
dear  Evan — don't  be  an  ass ;  it  was  pure  farce, 
and  I  don't  believe  he  knows  anything  about 
Fijians  at  all." 

"  My  mother  would  have  died  before  she  would 
have  allowed  such  a  thing  in  her  drawing-room," 
said  Evan.  "  You  have  no  womanly  dignity. 
Everyone  talks  about  you  and  the  way  you  behave 
as  if  you  were  married  to  the  whole  staff." 

"  Oh,  what  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  cried 
Evangeline.  "  I  was  so  happy  and  I  have  done 
nothing  whatever.  I  don't  know  what  you  are 
trying  to  get  at.  How  can  I  be  married  to  the  whole 
staff?" 

"  I  assure  you  no  stranger  could  point  out  which 
was  your  husband  in  a  mixed  gathering,"  he  replied 
coldly. 

"  Oh  my  dear,  you're  like  an  eclipse  of  the  sun," 
she  said,  getting  up  and  putting  her  arms  round 
his  neck.  "  I  have  been  so  happy  that  I  had  for- 
gotten all  your  Mumbo  Jumbo  of  this  or  that  being 
right  or  wrong,  that  you  used  to  make  my  flesh 
creep  with  till  I  thought  you  really  knew  about  it. 
I  believe  you  would  blow  out  pleasure  like  a  lamp 
if  you  could  and  make  us  all  sit  and  eat  repentance 
by  corpse  light.  I  am  going  to  make  another  fire 
in  my  room  and  have  tea  and  cake  there,  and  if  you 
don't  come  and  cheer  up  I'll  telephone  for  one  of 
my  other  husbands  to  come  instead."  So  Evan 
relented  until  the  next  time. 

They  came  back  to  Millport  for  a  visit  at  Easter. 


96  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  And  when  does  Mrs.  Hatton  expect  the  great 
event  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Carpenter  of  Susie  when  she 
and  Mrs.  Eric  Manley  and  Mrs.  Vachell  had  remained 
behind  to  tea  after  a  committee  meeting.  The 
committee  had  been  dealing,  among  other  matters, 
with  the  case  of  Mrs.  Potter's  daughter,  for  whom 
Teresa  asked  admittance  to  the  maternity  home 
they  represented. 

"  A  particularly  sad  case,"  Susie  had  remarked, 
"  because  it  seems  that  she  hardly  knew  the  man 
and  only  encouraged  him  because  her  husband  drank 
and  she  had  nothing  to  live  on.  If  she  had  only 
come  to  me,  as  Teresa  might  have  suggested  to  her, 
I  would  have  advised  her  what  to  do." 

"  What  would  you  have  advised  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Vachell  curiously. 

"  I  should  have  tried  to  explain  our  point  of 
view,"  said  Susie,  "  and  shown  her  that,  apart  from 
the  disgrace  and  all  that,  the  man  would  probably 
leave  her  sooner  or  later,  as  he  has." 

"  But  surely,  Mrs.  Fulton,  that  is  not  the  main 
point  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  Surely  we  want 
to  awaken  something  more  than  self-interest  ?  We 
want  to  make  these  girls  understand  that  the 
marriage  vow  often  implies  suffering." 

"  Oh,  of  course,"  replied  Susie  with  a  far-away 
look.  "  But  I  think  a  woman  always  hoj>es  to  the 
end.  They  are  so  confiding  and  they  forget  that  it 
will  probably  lead  them  into  trouble." 

In  replying  to  Mrs.  Carpenter's  other  question, 
however,  she  took  a  brighter  view  of  marriage. 
"  Not  quite  yet,"  she  said,  "  but  to  tell  you  the  truth, 
I  never  ask  many  questions  of  that  sort.  I  always 
think  that  the  glamour  of  a  young  marriage  ought 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  97 

not  to  be  rubbed  off  by  too  many  practical 
details." 

Mrs.  Vachell  used  to  wonder  now  and  then  how 
it  was  that  Susie  constantly  took  the  bread  out  of 
Mrs.  Carpenter's  mouth  without  her  victim  seeming 
to  experience  any  sense  of  loss.  Mrs.  Carpenter 
did  sometimes  hesitate  as  if  she  thought  she  had 
lost  something,  but  Susie  seemed  so  innocent  of  her 
theft  that  it  generally  passed  as  an  accident.  On 
the  whole,  Mrs.  Carpenter  accepted  her  as  an  ally. 

"  How  do  they  like  being  at  Drage  ?  "  Mrs. 
Manley  asked. 

"  Very  much  indeed,"  Susie  replied.  "  She  enjoys 
military  society,  fortunately,  which  I  never  did. 
Mrs.  Trotter  envies  her,  she  says,  as  she  doesn't  like 
Millport  herself.  Of  course  a  place  that  is  building 
itself  up  a  great  position  with  its  University  and 
its  social  schemes  can't  have  much  interest  for 
people  who  are  always  packing  up  and  following  a 
drum  from  one  dusty  parade  ground  to  another." 
She  paused  and,  as  her  audience  was  busy  with  cake, 
went  on,  "  Those  dreadful  folding  beds  and  bamboo 
furniture  that  they  all  seem  to  go  in  for — I  suppose 
because  it  is  so  light — depress  me  too  much.  I  do 
love  a  beautiful  home  of  my  own,  however  small." 

"  I  don't  think  you  are  altogether  fair  to  the  army, 
my  dear  lady,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  a  trifle  piqued. 
"  I  lived,  until  I  married,  among  my  dear  people 
who  were  always  on  the  move,  and  I  don't  think  you 
would  have  said  that  their  ideas  were  limited. 
Wherever  they  went  they  were  feted  like  princes 
by  all  the  most  interesting  people,  and  I  think 
it  gave  all  of  us  girls  much  wider  interests  and 
sharpened  our  wits  more  than  being  shut  up  in  the 


98  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

same  set  who  all  think  each  other  perfect.  Your 
parents  felt  it  a  great  change,  I  expect,  when  they 
moved  to  London.  One's  individuality  has  to 
fight  so  much  harder  there  not  to  go  under  with  the 
stream." 

"  I  daresay,"  said  Susie  gently,  "  but  that  was 
some  time  before  I  was  born.  I  have  always  been 
a  Londoner,  you  know.  Of  course  I  missed  at 
first  being  in  the  centre  of  everything,  but  I  have 
got  to  enjoy  the  earnestness  and  concentration  of 
it  all  here.  Like  those  wonderful  things  your 
friend  showed  us  under  the  microscope  the  other 
day,"  she  added  to  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  One  could 
hardly  believe  they  were  of  so  much  importance 
until  one  saw  them  moving  about." 

Mrs.  Manley  laughed  and  exchanged  a  look  with 
Mrs.  Vachell  and  then  Cyril  came  in  and  they  rose 
to  go.  They  never  felt  quite  at  ease  with  him. 
Mrs.  Carpenter,  feeling  bound  to  assert  her  famili- 
arity with  military  interests,  stayed  a  few  minutes 
to  question  him  about  his  work,  hoping  incidentally 
that  she  might  see  Evangeline  and  determine  for 
herself  the  probable  date  of  her  initiation. 


A  few  days  later  Evangeline  was  sitting  in  her 
father's  study  after  dinner.  Her  eyes  were  red 
with  crying  and  she  sat  in  a  deep  armchair  opposite 
him,  blowing  her  nose  at  intervals. 

"  Have  a  cigarette,"  said  Cyril  sympathetically, 
pushing  the  box  towards  her.  There  had  been 
something  like  a  row  at  dinner.  The  Trotters  had 
been  invited  and  David  Varens  had  turned  up 
unexpectedly  as  he  often  did  now  after  a  late 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  99 

lecture  at  the  University.  All  had  gone  well  until 
the  dessert,  when  Mrs.  Trotter,  with  that  want  of 
perception  that  often  goes  with  household  efficiency 
and  a  bright  nature,  began  telling  of  a  rift  in  the 
matrimonial  lute  of  the  staff-captain  and  his  wife. 
"  It  all  comes  of  her  being  so  keen  on  the  Uni- 
versity," she  concluded.  "  She  was  bound  to  get 
scorched  by  Mrs.  Vachell,  sooner  or  later,  when 
she  took  up  Egypt  with  that  giddy  old  professor. 
He  knows  too  much  about  the  Sphinx  altogether." 
She  helped  herself  to  some  grapes  and  winked  at 
Evan  Hatton.  Evangeline  grew  nervous  as  she 
saw  that  he  was  excessively  angry.  Cyril  saw,  too, 
but  not  realising  that  the  matter  was  serious  he 
laid  himself  out  for  a  little  fun. 

"  Now  then,  Evan,"  he  said,  "  we'll  drink  to  the 
spotless  reputation  of  the  Army  versus  Thought, 
coupled  with  the  name  of  Captain  Hatton."  He 
poured  himself  out  a  glass  of  port  and  passed  the 
decanter.  "  Now  then,  up  you  get." 

"  I  have  no  joke  ready,  Sir,  about  the  sort  of 
dirt  that  women  choose  to  throw  at  each  other," 
said  Evan,  and  he  relapsed  into  a  black  silence, 
fingering  his  glass. 

"  Here,  I  say,  Hatton "  began  Captain  Trotter 

angrily.  Evangeline  blushed  scarlet  and  looked 
at  her  husband  in  despair.  Mrs.  Trotter  inspected 
him  with  amused  disgust  and  waited  for  her  husband 
to  go  on. 

"  Evan  dear,  Evan,"  Susie  remonstrated.  "  What 
are  you  talking  about  ?  Mrs.  Trotter  will  think 
you  a  great  bear  if  you  use  such  strong  language 
about  poor  old  Professor  Vachell' s  little  flirtation. 
You'd  really  think  he  meant  it,  wouldn't  you  ?  " 


ioo  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

she  smiled  round  the  table  and  was  going  to  change 
the  conversation  when  Evan  rose. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  said,  "  but  I  should  have  to 
finish  what  I  was  going  to  say  if  I  remained,  and 
perhaps  I  have  no  right — which  of  us  has  when  it 
comes  to  throwing  stones  ?  "  He  went  to  the 
door. 

"  Evan !  "  pleaded  Evangeline  almost  angrily, 

but  he  was  gone. 

"  Poor  fellow  !  "  said  Susie,  "  I  expect  he  feels 
the  heat "  (or  the  cold — I  forget  what  the  weather 
was  at  the  time).  "  You  know,"  she  turned  to 
Captain  Trotter,  "  I  don't  believe  any  of  you  have 
quite  got  over  that  dreadful  war  yet.  I  met  a 
poor  boy  only  yesterday  who  was  quite  sure  that 
Moses  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision  and  announced 
the  Day  of  Judgment." 

"  That's  what  Moses  is  rather  in  the  habit  of 
doing,"  said  Cyril,  grateful  to  her  for  once,  though 
the  occasion  had  been  unintentional.  "  You  know, 
Trotter,  seriously,  you  ought  to  stop  those  boys 
gambling  at  the  mess  like  that.  There's  some  of 
them  don't  know  the  difference  between  a  Hebrew 
and  a  bank  account." 

The  Trotters  went  home  early  after  dinner. 
Evan  had  gone  for  a  walk  and  not  returned,  and 
David  Varens  and  Teresa  were  arguing  in  a  corner 
about  something,  so  Evangeline  slipped  off  to  her 
father's  room  and  there  wept  profusely  while  he 
smoked.  When  she  was  re-established  and  had 
accepted  a  cigarette,  Cyril  began  to  talk. 

"  I've  seen  more  of  that  sort  of  thing  than  you'd 
suppose,"  he  said,  "  but  I'm  sorry  it  should  come 
your  way,  Chips  ;  you,  of  all  people/' 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  101 

"  Oh,  I  don't  much  mind,  thanks,"  she  answered, 
blowing  her  nose  once  more  with  a  final  blast,  the 
last  roll  of  thunder  before  sunshine  reappears. 
"  Only  when  it  is  in  public." 

"  Do  you  get  much  of  it  in  private  ?  "  asked  her 
father. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  sighed.  "  Father,  what  do  you 
think  it  is  ?  He  must  be  so  miserable  if  he  thinks 
everybody  wicked  when  they  are  having  fun.  I 
would  give  up  everything  or  do  anything  to  see 
him  happy,  but  it  seems  impossible." 

"  I  always  understood  he  had  a  reputation  for 
being  very  good  fun,"  said  Cyril. 

"  Yes,  to  the  others,"  she  agreed.  "  They  all 
adore  him  and  he  never  minds  anything  they  do 
or  if  he  does  they  only  think  it  funnier  still.  It  is 
women  he  thinks  ought  not  to  be  amused  at  any- 
thing broader  than Oh,  I  don't  know,  the  way 

a  canary  eats  or  something  like  that." 

"  Very  dry  humour  certainly,"  he  commented, 
"  but  easily  gratified.  It's  a  pity  more  of  you 
don't  care  for  it." 

"  Father,  don't  talk  to  the  gallery,"  she  re- 
proached him.  "  You  know  you  detest  a  perfect 
lady." 

"  H'm.  First  catch  your  hare,"  he  replied. 
"  We're  not  getting  on  with  this,  Chips,  but  I  wish 
I  could  help  you.  How  does  he  take  the  prospect 
of  fatherhood  ?  If  it's  a  girl  and  you  keep  her  in 
good  condition  I  should  think  his  number  will  be 
up  shortly." 

"But  I  hate  fighting,"  she  objected.  "Why 
can't  we  be  happy  ?  And  suppose  it  is  a  boy  and 
he  learns  to  hate  Evan  ?  I  should  give  up  then 


102  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

and  run  away  with  him  to  the  desert  and  live  on 
dates  in  the  sun.  I  won't  have  a  little  boy  brought 
up  in  that  abominable  nonsense  about  Hell.  Anger 
is  hell.  I  don't  believe  in  a  God  with  a  black 
temper." 

"  Have  another  cigarette,"  said  Cyril. 

"  Thanks." 

"  What  are  Hatton's  sisters  like  ?  "  he  asked 
after  a  pause. 

"  Giggly  little  people,"  she  said,  "  awfully  kind." 

"  Do  they  like  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  so  long  as  they  suppose  I  think  Evan 
perfect." 

"  Does  he  object  to  them  ?  " 

"  No,  he  talks  to  them  about  carburettors  and 
their  G.F.S.  and  the  dogs." 

"  Oh,  well,  that  shows  he  can  be  all  right  if  he's 
interested,"  Cyril  remarked  with  some  relief.  "  You 
evidently  haven't  mastered  the  art  of  distraction 
that  I  warned  you  about,  you  remember. 

'  J.  is  for  James,  Maria's  younger  brother, 
Who,  walking  one  way,  chose  to  look  the  other.' 

That  is  the  secret  of  married  happiness,  I  find;  to 
act  like  James." 

The  front  door  banged  and  they  heard  Evan 
come  upstairs.  He  stopped  for  a  moment  outside 
the  door  and  then  came  in.  "  May  I  come  in,  Sir  ?  " 
he  asked,  "  I  heard  Evangeline  was  here.  I'm 
very  sorry  I  lost  my  temper  at  dinner.  I've  been 
round  to  Trotter  and  apologised  ;  but  I  can't  stand 
that  woman." 

"  Oh,  Evan,  you  are  a  good  bird,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  Come  and  sit  down  here  and  have  a  cigarette." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  103 

"  I  had  better  go  down  and  throw  out  Varens," 
said  Cyril,  looking  at  the  clock,  "  unless — (an  idea 
struck  him) — unless  you  care  to  go,  Chips,  and  tell 
your  mother  I  think  I  am  a  little  feverish  and  would 
she  like  to  come  and  rub  me  with  camphorated 
oil  ?  "  Evangeline  stared  at  him. 

"  What  on  earth  for  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  And  tell  Varens  I'll  be  down  in  a  minute  when 
the  attack  has  worn  off,  if  he  wouldn't  mind  waiting," 
Cyril  continued.  "  I'm  rather  inclined  to  back  up 
young  David  against  Miss  Emma  Goliath  when  it 
comes  to  taking  up  Dicky's  time." 

"  Where  do  you  get  all  your  Scripture  know- 
ledge from  ?  "  she  asked  wonderingly. 

"  I  have  often  read  the  lessons,"  he  assured  her ; 
then  he  remembered  his  son-in-law  and  looked  at 
him  guiltily,  but  all  was  calm.  Evan  was  listening 
and  smoking  benevolently.  Evangeline  resumed, 
"  Mother  will  never  swallow  that  rot." 

"  Then  I  must  do  it  myself,"  Cyril  decided  re- 
luctantly. "  Down  with  Emma  Goliath  and  her 
musty  cohorts !  "  He  left  the  room  and  a  few 
minutes  afterwards  they  heard  him  rummaging 
in  a  book-case  in  the  passage  for  the  Army  List 
of  1913,  while  Susie  held  the  candle. 


CHAPTER  IX 

YOUNG  Mr.  Price  worked  quite  hard  ("  rehrly,  you 
know,  kait  sairys  effort !  ")  to  bring  his  parent's 
house  up  to  the  requirements  of  his  college  friends. 
He  was  not  likely  to  ask  anyone  to  his  home  except 
for  political  or  enterprising  reasons,  because  Millport 
.at  its  richest  did  not  provide  much  entertainment 
for  unsympathetic  guests.  Its  merchant  princes 
fell  short  of  imagination  when  it  came  to  spending. 
They  were  as  unlike  the  Medici  as  could  well  be 
imagined.  They  not  only  failed  to  encourage  art, 
but  they  disliked  it  and  fought  against  it.  It  took 
as  much  pressure  of  public  opinion  from  rival  cities 
and  continents  to  get  anything  of  value  into  the 
town  as  would  have  been  required  to  turn  Lobengula 
into  a  St.  Anthony.  Sometimes  when  this  or  that 
architect,  painter,  poet  or  musician  was  known  to 
have  built,  decorated  or  filled  the  super-halls  of 
America  and  returned  burdened  with  contracts 
and  delicious  food,  Millport  used  to  stir  uneasily 
in  its  contempt  and  occasionally  went  so  far  as  to 
despatch  a  clerk  to  find  out  if  there  were  any  of 
the  stuff  left ;  because  America's  habit  of  apt 
valuation  is  only  too  well  krrown  in  .business  circles. 
The  fact  that  her  people  also  care  passionately  for 
their  purchases  might  otherwise  pass  unnoticed. 
Neither  did  Millport  indulge  itself  much  in  luxuries 
such  as  sailing,  travelling  or  sport.  The  Prices 

104 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  105 

kept  a  big  motor  which  they  used  carefully,  often 
suffering  the  horrors  of  the  local  train  or  the  crowded 
tram  rather  than  be  unbusiness-like  with  petrol. 
Their  clothes  were  a  source  of  pride  rather  than 
pleasure.  Mrs.  Price  was  timid  in  her  choice  of 
garments  and  inclined  to  the  perfect  taste  pre- 
scribed by  the  lady-in-waiting  at  Messrs.  Venison 
and  Phipps.  "  Mantles  this  way,  Modom,"  said 
the  junior  assistant  in  black  charmeuse,  and  then 
Miss  Figginbottam,  whom  Mrs.  Price  "  always 
reckoned  on,"  aged  forty-five,  disillusioned  and 
imperative,  stepped  forward  and  gave  the  casting 
vote  between  the  grey  moire  velours  and  the  rather 
richer  effect  of  the  petunia  and  chinchilla. 

But  young  Mr.  Price  and  his  sisters  now  told  the 
poor  old  lady  that  this  would  not  do.  Her  daughters 
took  her  to  London  and  brought  her  back  with 
monkeys'  tails  and  Balkan  embroideries  hanging 
slantwise  over  her  innocent  curves ;  they  trotted 
her  about  in  high-heeled  shoes  instead  of  the  soft 
kid  boots  that  Bollingworth's  used  to  make  so  well 
to  her  pattern.  They  did  her  hair  in  the  fashion 
of  Goya's  mistress  and  made  her  drink  cocktails 
and  become  a  vegetarian,  but  forbade  her  to  smoke, 
which  she  did  not  understand.  Her  son  taught 
her  the  names  of  the  new  poets,  but  could  never 
get  six  quotable  lines  of  their  poetry  into  her  head 
because  there  was  "  nothing  to  catch  hold  of " 
about  it.  Then  they  began  on  Dad ;  and  he  took 
to  it  like  a  bird.  There  was  no  trouble  with  him. 
He  put  himseM  entirely  in  the  hands  of  his  son's 
tailor  and  then  was  told  he  looked  too  smart.  So 
he  stood  patiently  and  allowed  his  trousers  to  be 
let  down  till  they  corkscrewed  ever  so  rightly  down 


io6  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

his  short  legs.  He  shaved  off  his  beard  and  grew 
a  very  intellectual-looking  moustache ;  but  his 
daughters  told  him  he  looked  like  a  Labour  Member 
and  made  him  shave  it  off.  He  smoked  a  pipe, 
which  he  did  not  care  for,  and  also  learned  when  to 
smoke  it ;  as,  for  instance,  when  his  old  friends 
of  the  city  had  all  got  out  their  cigars.  He  was 
made  to  eat  less  and  give  up  carving  ;  forbidden  to 
press  his  guests  to  a  second  or  third  helping  and 
privately  instructed  to  let  the  butler  manage.  He 
was  persuaded  to  buy  some  pedigree  dogs  for  Mrs. 
Price,  and  a  man  was  hired  to  lecture  to  her  once 
a  week  on  their  management  and  breeding  as  she 
wouldn't  learn  from  books.  The  more  they  tore 
up  the  drawing-room  the  better  the  young  Prices 
were  pleased,  though  it  caused  their  mother  secret 
agony.  Besides  the  names  of  poets  and  their 
works,  the  parents  were  made  to  learn  the  phraseo- 
logy of  farming,  lawn  tennis,  cricket,  golf,  sex- 
boredom  and  the  religions  of  the  world. 

It  was  during  the  time  when  these  social  gym- 
nastics were  being  most  arduously  practised  by  the 
Price  family  that  they  gave  an  evening  party  ;  one 
might  almost  suppose  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
their  minds  off  themselves.  "  Everybody "  was 
there  and  a  few  representative  nobodies,  just  to 
show  that  Mr.  Price,  senior,  was  in  touch  with  the 
political  movement  of  the  day.  "  The  University," 
of  course,  were  there,  because  though  it  used  not 
to  be  considered  the  thing  in  Millport  to  encourage 
people  who  lived  in  poky  houses  and  "  talked 
superior  "  and  "  made  fun,"  it  is  different  now  that 
the  aristocracy  have  taken  to  asking  even  theatrical 
people  about  and  marrying  professors  and  so  on. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  107 

You  never  know  in  these  days  when  your  local 
goose  won't  go  away  somewhere  and  become  a 
swan  and  get  written  up  in  the  papers  and  go  to 
Court  or  even  make  money.  Once  bitten,  twice 
shy.  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Mrs.  James  Manley  and 
Mrs.  Price  had  one  or  two  secret  grievances  against 
certain  home-clad  young  wives  whom  they  had 

avoided  as  "  not  quite "  and  who  had  gone 

back  on  them  later  by  being  positively  run  after 
by  all  sorts  of  people  ;  people  you  wouldn't  expect. 
How  on  earth  is  one  to  know  ?  Jupiter  ought  to 
label  his  protege's  in  some  way  from  the  start  so 
that  honest  people  who  can  afford  the  best  of 
everything  may  know  where  to  look  for  it. 

"  Would  you  believe  it,  Mrs.  — er?  "  Mrs.  Manley 
had  been  known  to  say,  on  coming  to  something 
of  the  sort  in  the  pages  of  her  Times. 

"  No,  and  if  you  ask  me,  I  think  it's  absu-u-rd," 
replied  Mrs.  Price  in  her  new  accent. 

"  I  used  to  think  her  decidedly  peculiar,"  put 
in  Mrs.  Carpenter,  "  but  there  never  was  any 
question  that  he  was  immensely  clever.  I  used 
to  talk  to  him  by  the  hour."  Emma  Gainsborough 
was  reported  to  have  said  that  she  hoped  that  when 
Millport  put  up  a  memorial  to  Mrs.  Carpenter  it 
would  be  in  the  appropriate  form  of  a  weathercock. 

The  Prices'  house  was  about  three  times  the  size 
of  the  Fultons'.  It  was  of  the  same  pattern  as  all 
the  other  houses  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  only  its 
square  mass  seemed  to  have  plumped  itself  down 
with  more  aggressive  self-satisfaction  than  the 
others.  On  a  close  spring  day  it  could  almost  be 
heard  breathing  there  on  its  bit  of  gravel,  puffing 
and  grunting,  "  Now  then  ;  what  dju  looking  at  ? 


io8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Go  away.  This  is  Mr.  Price's  house.  We've  got 
four  reception  rooms,  twelve  bedrooms,  double 
tennis  court,  treble  croquet  lawn,  copious  vinery, 
garage  and  the  usual  offices." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  party  was  a  good 
one  to  the  extent  that  the  prodigality  of  limitless 
self-satisfaction  can  go.  The  Prices  meant  well  so 
far  as  they  could  see  beyond  their  own  affairs  ;  and 
their  unfortunate  haziness  over  the  rest  of  humanity 
was  probably  not  their  fault.  Some  day  the  school 
of  "  Hope-for-all  "  thought  may  enlarge  its  activities 
and  devise  a  sort  of  Borstal  system  for  the  spiritually 
deficient,  and  the  habits  of  the  Prices  will  be  in- 
vestigated and  probably  traced  to  some  quite 
simple  defect  in  the  marrow  ;  the  juice  of  a  dog's 
kidney  may  perhaps  be  injected  and  suitable 
exercises  prescribed,  and  so  on. 

Dancing  was  going  on  in  the  larger  of  the  two 
drawing-rooms,  cards  were  to  be  played  in  the 
other,  an  "  imperial  supper,"  as  someone  reported, 
was  laid  out  in  the  dining-room  and  Father's  den 
was  banked  up  all  round  by  about  a  hundred  hats, 
in  the  middle  of  which  an  old  retainer  with  a  face 
like  the  largest  and  richest  muffin  ever  seen  sat  as 
if  in  a  nest.  No  one  could  have  approved  more 
thoroughly  of  the  proceedings  than  he.  He  had 
spent  nearly  all  his  life  in  waiting  on  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  Millport  in  the  evenings  and  in  the 
small  hours.  By  day  it  is  supposed  that  he  slept 
and  murmured  in  his  dreams,  "  Cold  chicken  or 
galantine,  Sir  ?  Lobster  salad  or  trifle,  Miss  ? 
Champagne,  Madam  ?  "  He  was  now  too  rheumatic 
for  this  labour  of  love,  so  he  sat  among  the  hats 
and  greeted  the  familiar  face*  as  they  came  in. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  109 

A  few  of  them,  such  as  Mr.  Manley,  spoke  to  him. 
"  Ah,  Higgins,  so  you're  here,  are  you  ?  "  they  said. 
"  Wet  night,  isn't  it  ?  "  and  then  they  passed  into 
the  bright  light  and  deafening  chatter.  Cyril  came 
in  to  leave  his  coat  and  hat  at  the  same  moment  as 
Sir  Richard  was  receiving  his  ticket.  "  Hullo, 
what  brings  you  here  ?  "  he  said.  "  Didn't  know 
you  came  to  these  things." 

"  I've  laid  a  foundation  stone  this  afternoon  and 
looked  in  on  my  doctor,"  Sir  Richard  began,  and 
he  paused  a  moment  to  dust  his  sleeve  with  a 
clothes  brush. 

"  Pure    coincidence,     I    hope  ?  "     Cyril    asked 
anxiously. 

"  No,  it's  a  fact,"  the  old  man  assured  him. 
"  But  I'll  tell  Milly  you  asked  and  what's  more  I 
won't  tell  her  that  Queen  Anne  sent  that  joke  to 
Punch.  She  has  got  the  car  here  and  I  thought 
I  might  as  well  go  back  in  it.  Young  David  is 
here  somewhere  with  her.  By-the-bye,  Price  wants 
me  to  let  Aldwych  to  him  for  the  hunting  next 
year.  I  may  have  to  go  abroad,  but  I  can't  make 
up  my  mind."  He  spoke  in  a  low  voice,  but 
Higgins  heard. 

"  I  shouldn't,"  Cyril  answered.  "  You  never 
know  what  those  sort  of  people  will  do  with  a 
place." 

"  How  d'you  mean  ?  "  asked  Sir  Richard. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  Cyril  replied,  "  but  it  is 
never  the  same  afterwards."  It  was  characteristic 
of  him  not  to  connect  any  mental  process  with  a 
globe  of  flesh  encircled  by  hats,  so  he  spoke  in  his 
usual  tone.  "  You  never  get  the  smell  of  money 
out  afterwards,  and  it  demoralises  tenants  worse 


no  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

than  the  plague.  And  what  would  you  do  with  the 
stables  ?  " 

"  He  wants  to  buy  the  lot,"  said  Sir  Richard. 

"  My  dear  fellow  !  "  Cyril  exclaimed,  and  then 
words  failed  him.  "  Here,  come  along  and  let's 
see  where  the  bottle  imp  has  his  lair.  That  founda- 
tion stone  had  your  wits  in  it,  I  think." 

Mr.  Joseph  Price  had  been  dancing  with  Evan- 
geline  and  they  were  now  sitting  in  the  winter 
garden.  "  You're  living  at  Drage  now,  aren't 
you  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Rather  a  wretch'd  sort  of 
place,  isn't  it  ?  Not  much  to  do  there,  what  ?  " 
Evangeline  looked  at  him  in  surprise.  "  What 
sort  of  things  can't  you  do  ?  "  she  asked.  "  I 
should  think  you  could  do  anything  there  is  to  do 
as  well  there  as  anywhere ;  unless  you  want  to 
shoot  bears  or  ride  elephants." 

"I  led  the  strainuous  life  there  for  a  bit,"  he 
replied.  "  I  never  was  so  f'd  up  in  my  life." 

"  How  long  were  you  there  ?  "  Evangeline  asked. 

"  Oh,  on  and  off  f  three  years  in  charge  'f  a 
batt'ry." 

"  And  where  did  your  battery  go  to  ?  "  She 
was  full  of  interest. 

"  Well,  'n  point  'f  fact  it  stayed  where  't  was," 
he  replied  carelessly.  "  They'd  had  'nough,  you 
see,  'f  sending  out  filers  not  prop'ly  trained,  and 
the  filers  they  sent  to  us  then  weren't  fit  f  handle 
a  catapult.  H'wever,  we  pushed  them  off  in  th' 
end." 

"  And  then  where  did  you  go  ?  "  she  pursued. 

"I'm  'fraid  you'll  be  raather  shocked,"  said 
Mr.  Price,  smiling,  le  but  I  never  got  further  than 
Switch'nham.  Kait;  gairysly  though,  the  Gov'nment 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  in 

took  over  the  Dad's  plant  there  and  not  a  soul  knew 
an'thing  about  it.  I  had  t'  run  the  whole  blooming 
show  by  m'self  with  a  handful  of  r'tired  M'thuselahs. 
Awf'l  shaame,  I  thought,  digging  the  pwur  old 
things  out  at  their  time  'f  life.  But  now  you  have 
the  whole  sordid  story  'f  m'  life.  Not  much  of  a 
filer,  Price,  is  he  ?  I  know  that's  what  you're 
thinking." 

"  Well,  I  want  to  be  quite  fair,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  Have  you  got  anything  the  matter  with  you  ?  " 

"  No,  sound  's  a  bell,"  said  young  Joseph. 

"  Well,  but  had  you  anything  then  ?  "  she  per- 
sisted. "  Groggy  arms  or  legs  or  insides  ?  " 

"  Lac'ration  of  right  forearm  'n'  elbow,  received 
when  leaving  th'  theatre  in  state  'f  intoxication 
during  'n  air  raid,"  he  replied,  grinning  at  her, 
"  also  sustained  loss  'f  an  eye  and  inj'ry  to  left 
ankle." 

"  Honest  ?  "  she  asked  earnestly.  "  Let  me 
look  at  your  eye." 

"  T's  glass,  but  there's  nothing  green  in  it," 
said  Mr.  Price,  holding  down  one  eyelid,  and  she 
saw  that  what  he  said  was  true. 

The  music  of  the  next  dance  began  and  he  rose. 
"  You  dancing  this  ?  "  he  asked,  "  or  c'n  I  get  you 
a  partner  ?  I'm  'fraid  I've  got  to  trot  out  Miss 
Gainsborough.  I  shall  keep  her  meuving  for  she 
caan't  talk." 

"  I've  lost  my  programme,"  said  Evangeline, 
"  but  I'm  almost  certain  I'm  dancing  with  some 

kind  of  a  Manley,  with  pink  eyes Oh,  I'm 

sorry,  I  expect  he  is  your  cousin ;  everybody  is 
here." 

"  Yes,  that's  Claud,  I  expaect,  but  don't  mind 


iia  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

me,  please,"  Mr.  Price  replied.  "  His  mother's 
my  aunt.  But  I  don't  see  him  or  my  partner — ~" 
He  looked  round  and  they  waited  a  moment.  "  He's 
great  on  the  pwur,  too,"  he  said.  "  P'haps  they're 
hatching  something  t'gether.  I  don't  alt'gether 
b'lieve  in  it  m'self,  d'you  ?  Of  course  it's  awf 'lly 
fine  and  all  that  and  I  'dmire  it  immensely,  but  I 
think  it  'ncourages  them  t'  have  grievances — 
makes  them  dwell  on  their  p'sition  and  so  on,  which 
after  all  can't  be  helped.  Don't  you  rather  agree  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Evangeline.  She  was  not 
attending  much  for  she  had  caught  sight  of  her 
husband  talking  seriously  to  Mrs.  Vachell  and 
wondered  what  it  was  about.  She  recalled  her 
mind  to  what  Mr.  Price  was  saying.  "  My  sister 
thinks  of  nothing  else,"  she  said,  "  but  I  am  no 
good  at  it ;  I  am  too  lazy  and  selfish."  Emma 
Gainsborough  appeared  just  then  and  Mr.  Price 
left  Evangeline  with  an  apology. 

"  Awf  lly  hot,  what  ?  "  he  observed  to  Emma 
when  they  had  been  labouring  round  the  room  a 
few  minutes.  Emma  was  not  a  good  dancer. 

"  Hot  what,  what  hot  ?  "  she  mimicked  him  rather 
crossly.  "  You  had  better  stop  and  have  an  ice." 

"  Forthcoming !  "  he  observed  as  they  stopped 
and  he  inspected  her  curiously.  "  Forthcoming 
indeed !  You're  magnif 'cent  actress,  you  know, 
Miss  Gainsborough.  Why  couldn't  you  do  thaat 
when  I  came  to  dinner  with  you,  'nstead  of  making 
me  think  I  was  boring  you  all  th'  time  ?  " 

Emma  ignored  his  last  sentence.  "  I  am  very 
sorry,"  she  said,  "  but  I  do  so  hate  parties.  I  get 
to  know  such  a  lot  about  the  food  before  I  see  it, 
and  I  know  all  the  time  that  my  father  will  criticise 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  113 

every  dish  afterwards  and  mother  will  feel  she  has 
been  a  failure  and  say  that  she  must  get  another 
cook ;  and  we  never  do.  We  have  had  the  same 
one  for  years  and  she  gets  steadily  older  and  worse." 

"  Have  some  coffee  or  'n  ice  ?  "  he  suggested. 
"  What  c'n  I  get  you  ?  I  say,  th'  band  seems  to  be 
packing  up — that  means  supper.  Will  you  excuse 
me  as  I  merst  look  after  one  of  the  dowagers. 
Claud  will  take  you  in.  Here,  Claud,"  he  beckoned 
to  his  cousin,  "  '11  you  taek  Miss  Gainsborough  ?  " 
and  he  departed  in  haste.  He  found  that  his 
mother  had  allotted  Susie  to  him  from  among 
"  the  dowagers."  The  parent  Gainsboroughs,  Sir 
Richard  and  his  wife,  Cyril  and  the  sister  of  the 
ex-Lord  Mayor,  filled  a  table  with  their  host,  and 
Joseph  Price  and  Susie  sat  together  close  by. 

"  A  most  charming  young  man,  that  Joseph 
Price,"  Susie  remarked  in  her  room  that  night. 
"  I  wish  Evangeline  had  met  him  before  dear  Evan 
came  to  the  house  so  constantly.  He  is  so  fond  of 
sport.  I  hear  there  is  some  idea  of  his  father  taking 
Aldwych." 

"  Mother  Price's  diamonds  would  flash  the  glad 
news  from  tower  to  tower,"  said  Cyril  with  more 
animosity  than  he  generally  showed  to  anyone. 
"  Her  searchlights  played  over  me  at  supper  till 
anyone  could  have  spotted  the  lobster  swimming 
in  the  champagne."  Susie  took  refuge  hi  silence 
and  they  went  to  bed.  Evangeline  and  Evan  were 
talking  in  their  room  at  the  same  time.  "  I  hope 
you  had  supper,"  she  said,  "  I  feel  I  don't  want  any 
more  to  eat  for  days.  Whom  did  you  get  hold  of  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Vachell,"  he  answered.  "  She  is  a  very 
charming  woman  ;  most  interesting  and  cultivated." 


U4  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Evan,  I  shall  never  understand  you,"  she  said 
with  amusement.  "  You  disapprove  of  the  most 
harmless  people  and  Mrs.  Vachell  does  more  harm 
than  almost  anyone  at  Drage." 

"  Now  that  is  so  like  a  woman,"  said  Evan. 
"  Always  running  down  your  own  sex  if  a  man 
praises  one  of  them." 

Evangeline  winced  under  the  injustice  and  her 
amusement  died.  '  You  will  give  me  a  sharp 
tongue  some  day  that  I  wasn't  born  with,"  she 
said  hotly.  "  What  I  meant  was  that  Mrs.  Vachell 
doesn't  believe  in  any  of  the  things  you  are  always 
fighting  about,  she  isn't  kind  to  people  for  she 
doesn't  like  them,  and  Mrs.  Carpenter " 

"  Don't  mention  her,"  said  Evan.  "  She's  an 
awful  woman." 

"  Yes,  I  know  you  can't  stand  her  any  more  than 
you  can  stand  Mrs.  Trotter  who  is  a  perfectly  harm- 
less, common  little  thing,  as  good  as  gold.  But 
Mrs.  Carpenter  is  the  solid  prop  of  the  whole  edifice 
of  what  I  understand  you  want  people  to  be  and 
yet  you  hate  her." 

"  She's  a  humbug,"  said  Evan,  "  that's  why." 

"  I  don't  think  Mrs.  Vachell  believes  in  anything 
except  brains,"  said  Evangeline.  "  That's  her  own 
affair,"  he  replied.  "  That  is  a  matter  between 
her  and  her  Maker.  All  I  say  is  that  she  behaves 
like  a  lady  and  talks  intelligently,  without  that 
silly  affectation  of  chaff  that  spoils  most  women." 

"  She  doesn't  work  nearly  as  hard  as  Mrs.  Car- 
penter," Evangeline  laboured  on.  She  would 
always  take  up  any  cause  at  a  moment's  notice 
and  sacrifice  the  approval  she  loved  best  in  her 
whole-hearted  defence. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  115 

"  Well,  keep  your  opinion  and  I'll  keep  mine," 
he  said,  "  I  never  could  help  being  fond  of  you, 
Evangeline,  but  you  do  exasperate  me  sometimes 
more  than  I  can  tell  you.  I  never  know  whether 
you  deliberately  won't  see  what  I  am  talking  about 
or  whether  you  can't." 

"  If  that  is  all,"  she  said  contentedly,  "  I  don't 
mind.  I  thought  you  were  angry  with  me." 

The  Gainsboroughs  were  habitually  early  risers. 
At  half-past  nine  they  generally  parted  for  the 
day ;  the  Principal  to  his  principaUing,  his  wife 
to  the  kitchen,  fortified  by  renewed  hope  of  Annie 
being  able  to  cook  something  really  nice  to-day ; 
Emma  to  the  grimy  back  street  where  she  had 
her  office.  It  had  been  late  when  they  reached 
home  after  the  Prices'  party,  and  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough's inevitable  question,  "  Would  you  like 
anything,  dear,  before  you  go  to  bed  ?  "  was  known 
to  the  other  two  to  offer  no  inducement  to  sitting 
up  ;  no  one  can  talk  over  a  feast  on  digestive 
biscuits  and  water.  The  three  bedroom  doors 
were  shut  within  ten  minutes  after  the  cab  had 
rattled  away  down  the  street  and  not  a  sound  was 
heard  in  the  big  house  except  faint  snoring  from 
the  top  floor  and  the  ticking  of  the  grandfather 
clock  on  the  landing  below.  Emma  got  into  bed 
and  heard  the  clock  gather  itself  together  with  a 
hoarse  rattle  and  strike  one  ;  four  church  clocks 
answered  it  a  minute  later.  The  trams  had  stopped 
and  the  road  was  so  silent  that  a  policeman's  foot- 
step was  heard  all  up  the  street  that  lay  behind  the 
house,  round  the  corner  and  down  past  Emma's 
window  almost  to  the  end  of  the  Square.  "  Cer- 
tainly not !  Certainly  not  I  "  Emma  imagined  the 


n6  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

footsteps  saying,  and  her  heart  warmed  to  the 
image  of  faithful  Robert,  patient  and  decorous, 
with  order  as  his  means  of  subsistence  and  disorder 
his  only  hope  of  pleasure  in  the  monotonous  hours. 
"  Certainly  not.  Certainly  not."  The  clocks  chimed 
two  strokes  and  then  one  ;  half-past  one.  Robert 
was  coming  back.  Cats  began  to  quarrel  in  the 
sooty  flower  beds  of  the  Square ;  scuffled,  spat, 
shrieked  and  vanished.  Emma  thought  harshly 
of  them  and  gradually  dozed.  The  silence  was 
broken  by  a  sudden  uproar  in  the  street  at  the 
back,  near  the  corner  of  Robert's  beat,  where  rows 
of  mean  little  houses  led  down  to  one  of  the  railway 
stations.  There  were  loud  sounds  of  quarrelling, 
a  woman's  voice  and  two  or  three  men  ;  a  splinter- 
ing of  glass,  a  scream,  grumbling,  threats  and  oaths 
and  then — "  Certainly  not.  Certainly  not."  Robert 
was  coming  back. 

"  'Ere,  what's  this  ?  "  she  imagined  he  would 
say  when  he  reached  the  corner,  but  all  was  silent 
before  he  had  passed  the  Square,  and  any  hope  of 
incident  for  that  night  faded  away  as  the  clock 
struck  two  and  the  rain  began  to  fall  gently.  Emma 
was  wide  awake  now  and  lay  for  some  time  thinking 
of  her  work  with  the  hopelessness  of  a  tired  body 
and  mind.  Robert  probably  never  suffered  in  this 
way.  If  he  got  in  the  dumps  he  took  something 
for  it,  "  an'  as  for  that  lot  up  there,"  he  would 
have  said,  pointing  a  thumb  up  the  poverty-stricken 
scene  of  the  quarrel,  "  the  sooner  they  was  all 
turned  out  the  better."  Mrs.  Robert  probably 
understood  more  than  he  did  about  the  discouraging 
habits  of  matter,  which  collects  again  as  soon  as  it 
is  displaced.  Teresa's  dreams  were  busy  with  other 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  117 

plans  for  settling  the  difficulty.  She  wanted  to 
build  up  the  whole  mess  into  a  work  of  art. 

The  Gainsboroughs  had  their  deferred  talk  about 
the  Prices'  party  at  breakfast  next  morning. 

"  Joseph  Price  is  a  perfect  ass,"  said  Emma. 
"  And  yet  you  can't  be  as  angry  with  him  as  he 
makes  you.  I  want  first  to  slap  him  and  then  to 
turn  him  right  side  up  again  and  put  him  back  in 
his  chair." 

"  No,  I  think  he  is  really  dreadful,"  said  her 
mother.  "  He  always  was  a  tiresome  little  boy, 
but  Cambridge  seems  to  have  done  him  more  harm 
than  good.  I  can't  think  where  he  gets  that  silly 
way  of  speaking.  It  is  more  like  Oxford  if  any- 
thing, but  it  isn't  that  either.  I  wouldn't  libel  the 
poor  things." 

"It  is  a  sort  of  culture  and  climbing  mixed," 
said  Emma.  "  Don't  you  remember  when  the 
Mortons  came  down  here  to  open  the  Industries  ? 
Some  of  them  talked  exactly  like  that,  only  it 
wasn't  so  obvious  because  it  must  have  been  longer 
since  they  did  it  on  purpose.  It  is  almost  natural 
to  lots  of  people  I  am  sure.  But  Joseph  Price  was 
very  busy  with  it  then.  '  Voila  que  j' arrive  !  ' 
his  whole  face  said." 

"  It  was  a  splendid  supper,"  said  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough, "  I  only  wish  I  could  teach  Annie  to  make 
quenelles  like  that.  I  think  she  must  make  ours 
too  soft.  They  always  have  that  curious  squashy 
tastelessness  about  them,  or  else  too  much  pepper." 

"  My  dear  Beatrice,  you'll  never  do  anything 
with  that  woman,  so  long  as  you  live,"  said  the 
Principal.  He  tossed  a  piece  of  kidney  on  his 
plate.  "  Look  at  that !  Leathery,  dry — a  kidney 


n8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

ought  to  be  a  dream  of  tenderness  and  blood,  just 
poised — poised,  mind,  so  that  the  juices  soak 
through — on  a  piece  of  toast,  neither  hard  nor  soft, 
browned  to  a  turn " 

"  Oh,  Father,"  interrupted  his  daughter,  "  do 
please  talk  of  something  else.  You  make  me 
dribble  with  envy  ;  I  can't  bear  it." 

"  Poor  darlings  !  "  murmured  the  mother,  com- 
passionate almost  to  tears.  "It  is  hard  on  you. 
I  really  will  speak  to  her  and  see  if  she  wouldn't 
care  to  go  to  Mrs.  Plumtre ;  I  know  they  don't  care 
what  they  eat.  I'm  not  sure  even  that  they're 
not  vegetarians." 

"  Did  you  know  Mrs.  Price  has  become  a  vege- 
tarian ?  "  said  Emma.  "  But  not  the  duck-made- 
of-peas  kind  ;  just  lettuce  and  peaches  and  cheese  ; 
except  when  she  goes  to  London  by  herself,  she 
told  me.  Oh  dear,  I  must  go  but  I  am  so  sleepy," 
she  yawned  and  got  up. 

"  Did  you  sleep  well,  darling  ?  "  asked  her  mother 
anxiously. 

"  There  was  a  row  going  on  in  Millard  Street 
and  it  woke  me  up." 

"I'd  have  all  those  people  turned  out,"  said 
the  Principal.  "  When  there's  a  revolution  the 
houses  round  here  won't  be  fit  to  live  in.  And 
there's  that  Cranston  next  door,  throwing  out 
literature  that  is  so  much  rank  poison  by  its  stupidity. 
It  is  bad  enough  to  harm  even  educated  idiots,  for 
they  take  it  all  in,  but  at  least  they  are  not  likely 
to  burn  down " 

"  If  you  please,  Sir,  Mr.  Fisk  wants  to  know  if 
he  can  see  you  for  a  moment.  He  is  in  the  library," 
said  Annie  at  the  door. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  119 

Emma  escaped,  and  as  she  passed  the  open  door 
of  the  library  she  saw  a  young  man  with  hair  a  la 
Kropotkin  and  immense  spectacles  whom  she  knew 
to  be  the  secretary  of  the  students'  debating  society 
and  the  son  of  good  Mr.  Fisk,  plumber  and  decorator 
in  the  neighbourhood. 


CHAPTER   X 

MR.  FISK  was  a  good  son  at  home  and  a  pleasant 
fellow  among  his  friends.  Emma,  who  was  liked 
by  the  students  and  went  to  their  gatherings,  had 
often  met  him.  He  kept  dormice  in  his  bedroom 
and  tended  them  with  care,  but  if  the  Communist 
society  he  belonged  to  had  called  him  to  do  murder 
in  the  cause  of  incomes  for  all  he  would  have 
summoned  his  courage  to  smite  some  bald-headed 
director  of  a  company  with  a  bloody  axe.  His 
errand  to  the  Principal  that  morning  was,  I  am 
glad  to  say,  of  a  most  peaceful  nature,  connected 
with  the  degree  he  hoped  to  take.  He  met  Emma 
and  Teresa  the  same  afternoon  at  a  tea  given  by 
some  of  the  students  after  the  meeting  of  the  debat- 
ing society.  Teresa  took  the  cup  he  offered  her, 
and  became  fascinated  by  his  withered  little  face, 
his  immense  spectacles  and  his  Kropotkin  hair. 
Her  instinct  scented  suffering  and  the  cage,  and  she 
led  him  on  to  talk.  It  must  be  understood  that  this 
was  her  first  experience  of  his  kind  and  she  never 
forgot  it.  He  began  explaining  to  her,  earnestly 
at  first,  then  excitedly  ;  he  struck  his  knobbly  little 
hands  one  against  the  other.  "  Blood !  "  he  con- 
cluded, "  blood  !  there's  nothing  else  for  it.  We 
shall  give  our  blood  when  the  time  comes  and  we 
shall  take  it  ruthlessly — without  remorse."  Teresa 
looked  at  him  fixedly,  questioning.  "  I  think  that 

ICO 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  121 

is  very  wicked,"  she  said,  when  she  had  made  up  her 
mind.  "  You  have  no  business  at  all  to  decide  that 
one  person  shall  live  and  another  shan't ;  it  is 
much  too  serious.  Suppose  that  another  lot  of 
people  decided  that  you  must  be  killed  because  you 
got  a  degree  and  they  didn't  ?  " 

"  I  shan't  have  been  born  into  my  degree  when  I 
get  it,"  he  said  proudly.  "  I  shall  have  earned  it 
by  my  own  endeavours.  The  rich  have  been  born 
into  their  property  for  generations.  They  come 
into  the  world  nourished  on  the  blood  of  my  fathers. 
Show  me  the  signs  of  toil  on  your  hands,  if  you 
please,"  he  looked  down  with  a  bitter  expression  at 
her  little  hands  that  held  the  cup. 

"  I  know,"  she  said  humbly,  "  I  often  think  of  it. 
You  needn't  point  it  out.  But  still  you  oughtn't 
to  murder  anybody.  It  is  not  their  fault ;  and 
anyhow,  suppose  you  burgled  my  father's  house, 
he  would  have  no  right  to  kill  you  except  in 
self-defence.  I  know  that  is  so ;  a  lawyer  told 
me." 

"  What's  the  law !  "  said  Mr.  Fisk  contemptu- 
ously. "  We're  going  to  alter  all  that ;  we're  going 
to  make  new  laws  by  which  man  will  have  the  right 
to  live." 

"  Yes,  but  not  to  stop  others  living,"  said  Teresa 
"  It's  silly  ;  you  know  you  can't  make  laws  ;  and 
who  is  going  to  carry  them  out  if  you  do  ?  You 
can't  make  people  do  what  you  want  just  by  telling 
them  that  you  have  made  a  law.  There's  the  army 
and  navy  too — but  what  is  the  good  of  arguing. 
You  must  know  it  is  silly." 

"  The  army  and  navy  are  also  learning  to  think, 
you'll  find,"  said  Mr.  Fisk.  "  But  I  don't  wish  to 


122  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

offend  you,  Miss — er.  You  are  yourself  of  military 
stock,  I  believe  ?  " 

"Yes  I  am,  but  I  don't  bother  about  that.  It 
has  got  nothing  to  do  with  what  I  think,"  she  replied. 

"  Don't  you  know "  she  went  on,  with  passion 

beginning  to  rise  in  her  as  his  words  soaked  in, 
"  don't  you  know,  you  stupid  (she  shook  him 
delicately  by  the  sleeve),  that  all  the  decent  people 
in  England — and  English  people  are  decent,  not 
like  the  beastly  people  you  try  to  make  your  hair 
like — are  working  their  very  hardest,  day  and  night, 
to  put  things  straight  ?  And  the  fact  that  some  of 
them  have  got  white  hands  is  all  the  better,  for  it 
means  they  have  money  and  time  to  spend  on  it, 
and  you  have  only  the  time  to  learn  by  heart  what 
someone  else  has  written.  It  does  make  me  so 
angry  when  I  know  what  the  idle  rich,  as  you  call 
them,  are  doing." 

"  Bah  !  charity  !  "  said  Mr.  Fisk,  and  he  spat 
some  shreds  of  tobacco  from  his  cigarette  neatly 
into  the  grate. 

"  Oh,  you  can't  have  thought  I  was  talking  about 
charity,"  said  Teresa  with  real  distress.  "  Of  course 
I  wasn't.  It  is  the  very  thing  I  dislike  most,  except 
your  muddle  and  murder.  And  besides  that,  some 
of  the  richest  people  boast  of  having  been  newsboys, 
and  they  are  often  the  rudest  to  their  servants  and 
their  wives  are  horrid  lazy  snobs."  Mr.  Fisk's 
little  withered  face  twitched  with  his  anxiety  to 
collect  some  clear  dignified  retort. 

"  Have  you  ever  read  much  on  your  subject,  may 
I  ask  ?  "  he  inquired  at  last.  "  Have  you  studied 
economics  ?  Perhaps  you  have  attended  Professor 
Cranston's  lectures  ?  " 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  123 

"  No,  I  haven't,"  she  replied. 

"  Then,  pardon  me,  but  I  think  you  are  hardly 
qualified  for  the  argument.  Capitalism  is  a  highly 
intricate  subject  and  should  involve  deep  study. 
To  judge  how  far  it  is  advisable  to  submit  the  control 
of  wages  to  the  State,  and  also  to  consider  to  what 
extent  the  right  of  the  individual  to  determine  the 
extent  of  his  earning  capacity  should  be  carried, 
requires  a  long  training  and  arduous  study.  I  should 
be  pleased  to  continue  our  talk  at  some  other  time 
if  convenient  to  you,  and  I  should  be  happy  to 
lend  books  if  you  are  interested." 

"  Yes,"  said  Teresa  with  a  sigh  of  fatigue.  "  I 
want  to  know.  And  you  are  part  of  the  faces  in  the 
fog,  I  suppose,"  she  added  absently,  looking  at  him. 

"  I  beg  pardon  ?  " 

"  I  said  you  were  part  of  the  faces  in  the  fog.  I 
used  to  wonder  when  we  came  here  what  was  behind 
the  sort  of  brick-wall  expression  that  people  in  the 
streets  and  the  trams  had.  When  you  go  to  speak 
in  Hyde  Park  you  will  see  how  different  your 
audience  is — quite  merry  in  comparison." 

"  I  don't  propose  to  do  so  at  present,"  said 
Kropotkin-Fisk,  highly  offended.  "  We  leave  that 
to  the  executive.  Our  body  here  is  concerned  at 
the  moment  exclusively  with  study  and  propaganda." 
Emma  came  to  look  for  Teresa  and  heard  the  end  of 
the  discussion. 

"  Aren't  you  paving  the  way  for  a  new  set  of  class 
distinctions,  Mr.  Fisk  ?  "  she  asked.  "  What  you 
said  just  now  sounded  like  it.  I  hope  you  will  take 
a  lesson  from  the  present  evil  system  and  pay  your- 
self properly  if  you  are  going  to  keep  to  the  higher 
activities." 


124  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  I  don't  quite  follow,"  said  Mr.  Fisk,  "  but  if 
you'll  favour  us  at  the  next  debate  and  hear  my 
paper,  perhaps  you  will  put  your  question  then,  and 
I  shall  do  my  best  to  parry  your  thrust." 

"  I  don't  know  what  Mrs.  Potter  would  do  if  Fisk 
were  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  under  the 
new  regime,"  said  Emma,  as  she  and  Teresa  walked 
back  together. 

"  Yes,  she  would  loathe  it,"  Teresa  agreed.  "  But 
I  don't  exactly  know  why.  Why  do  they  so  often 
hate  their  own  class  in  office  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Emma,  "  I  suppose  if  Eddie  Fisk 
is  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  there's  no  reason 
why  Albert  Potter  shouldn't  go  one  better  and  be 
King.  Mrs.  Potter  '  never  would  'ave  'eld  with 
them  Fisks,'  you'd  find,  ' — settin'  themselves 
up  ! '" 

"  But  Communists  don't  have  a  King  ;  isn't  that 
the  whole  point  ?  "  Teresa  objected. 

"  They  don't  until  one  of  them  wants  to  be  it," 
said  Emma.  "  They  would  call  him  something  else, 
but  some  of  them  would  develope  an  aptitude  for 
ruling.  Even  apes  do." 

"  But  then,  I  suppose  the  others  could  depose 
him  if  he  wasn't  hereditary,"  said  Teresa. 

"  No,  '  Gawd  save  the  Prince  o'  Wales,  bless  'is 
dear  'eart !  '  is  Mrs.  Potter's  motto.  '  That  there 
Fisk  is  never  going  to  come  it  over  our  Albert,  you'll 
find,  Miss,'  is  what  she  would  say.  Ask  her  the 
next  time  you  see  her." 

"  Mr.  Jorkins  doesn't  agree  with  that,"  Teresa 
pursued.  "  When  he  is  out  of  work  the  first  thing 
he  blames  is  Parliament.  He's  dead  against  it." 

"  Well,  there  will  always  be  two  opinions  about 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  125 

everything  in  a  country,"  said  Emma.  "  You 
had  much  better  leave  them  all  alone  to  mess 
about  and  let  us  get  on  with  what  we  are  doing. 
At  present  Mr.  Fisk  is  rather  like  the  mouse  that 
dipped  its  tail  in  the  beer  and  sucked  it.  He  is 
looking  for  the  cat,  that's  all." 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  "  her  friend  asked  anxiously. 

"  I  am  only  sure  after  a  party  like  the  Prices'  last 
night,"  Emma  answered.  "  It  will  wear  off  to- 
morrow, and  I  shall  get  cross  with  Father  for  talking 
Conservative  intellectualism.  I  can't  see  any  use 
in  the  Prices  to-day.  They  give  money  when  there 
is  a  list  of  donations,  and  Papa  Price  just  hugs 
himself  when  someone  comes  round  for  a  subscrip- 
tion. He  keeps  them  waiting  in  his  office,  and  then 
when  he  has  succeeded  in  beating  them  down  to 
less  than  they  asked  for  and  yet  finds  he  is  still  in 
the  top  batch  of  subscriptions  he  does  think  he  has 
been  clever.  And  Mrs.  Price  and  the  family  !  I 
would  really  enjoy  seeing  the  girls  working  in  the 
fur  trade  instead  of  wearing  coats  of  it,  and  I 
wouldn't  wish  that  to  many  people.  I  would  like 
to  see  them  stop  cackling  and  find  out  how  witty 
they  would  be  on  two  pennyworth  of  refuse.  Then 
the  next  day,  perhaps,  I  meet  Lady  Varens,  whom 
I  don't  grudge  anything  to,  because  she  keeps  a  lot 
of  people  happily  employed  and  really  cares  for 
them  and  buys  beautiful  things  with  her  money. 
And  after  that  the  Starks  turn  up — you  know — the 
schoolmistress  at  St.  Angelus'  school — you  met  her 
at  the  Dispensary.  Mrs.  Potter's  life  is  a  screaming 
farce  compared  to  hers,  and  the  Jorkinses  are 
wallowing  in  wealth,  for  at  least  they  enjoy  them- 
selves at  the  pictures  and  the  pub.  when  so  disposed." 


126  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Well,  let  us  add  it  up,"  said  Teresa.  "  Under 
Mr.  Fisk's  scheme,  Mrs.  Potter  and  Mrs.  Stark  will 
benefit ;  Mrs.  Price  will  be  altogether  wrecked  and 
mangled — she  and  her  family  ;  Lady  Varens  will 
live  as  she  would  probably  be  quite  content  to  live 
now — she  never  seems  to  want  much — and  she  would 
upset  the  apple  carts  of  a  lot  of  happy  dependants. 
But  then  there  are  lots  of  Potters,  lots  of  Starks, 
comparatively  few  Prices,  a  good  many  Varenses 
and  not  a  great  many  happy  dependants,  so  how 
does  the  proportion  of  benefits  work  out  ?  I  shall 
have  to  ask  David  to  unravel  it." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon — David  ?  "  asked  Emma. 

"  David  Varens,"  said  Teresa.  "  What's  the 
matter  ?  " 

"  Nothing.  I  only  wondered  for  a  moment.  Do 
you  go  much  by  what  he  says  ?  " 

"  Yes,  more  than  anybody." 

"  Why,  may  I  ask  ?  " 

"  Oh,  because  he  is  so  simple,"  she  answered 
readily.  "  I  can  never  tangle  him  up  in  a  problem. 
He  lays  it  all  out  and  sorts  it  into  heaps,  and  then 
generally  sums  up  by  saying  there  is  nothing  in  it. 
It  is  so  restful.  And  then  he  tells  me  about  phos- 
phates and  the  habits  of  the  teal.  But  it  is  only 
for  the  rest  to  my  muddled  head  that  I  like  it  so 
much.  It  would  never  put  me  off  my  work." 

"  Sure  ?  "  asked  Emma,  and  she  was  obliged  to 
accept  the  assurance  when  it  was  given  a  second 
time. 

As  they  passed  the  Vachells'  house,  which  was 
not  far  from  the  Gainsboroughs',  Mrs.  Vachell  was 
just  going  in.  "  Come  and  have  tea  with  me  ?  " 
she  suggested.  Emma  explained  that  they  had  had 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  127 

tea  and  that  she  had  work  to  do  at  home,  but  Teresa 
accepted.  She  was  inclined,  like  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land, to  taste  and  nibble  whatever  new  thing  came 
her  way ;  she  had  never  been  inside  the  Vachells' 
house,  nor  felt  that  she  understood  what  lay  behind 
the  self-possession  of  the  small,  graceful  lady  whom 
it  was  said  the  Professor  had  found  fanning  herself 
by  moonlight  under  an  obelisk  and  brought  home. 
Mrs.  Vachell's  face  was  beautiful  and  full  of  character 
but  the  character  was  of  the  reversible  kind,  of 
which  it  is  impossible  to  decide  whether  it  is  intended 
to  be  good  or  bad.  Such  faces  seem  not,  like  most 
faces,  to  alter  gradually  with  their  owner's  mind, 
but  to  hold  always  in  themselves  two  distinct 
characters  between  which  the  soul  has  never  chosen 
a  habitation.  At  death,  opinion  is  generally  divided 
as  to  which  character  has  been  the  true  one,  as  in 
life  it  was  never  decided  which  it  would  prove  to  be. 
"  Very  like  a  curious  death-mask  my  father  was 
once  given  for  his  study,"  Susie  had  described  her 
on  first  acquaintance.  "  Dante,  or  somebody,  I 
think  it  was,  who  wrote  the  '  Inferno.'  " 

Teresa  followed  the  small  gliding  figure  into  the 
hall  and  up  the  stairs,  where  photographs  of  Byzan- 
tine art  and  reproductions  of  drawings  from 
Egyptian  tombs  were  hung  right  up  to  the  high 
window  that  lighted  the  stairs  with  a  cold  north 
light.  The  back  yards  and  chimneys  of  young 
Millport  mixed  disagreeably  in  her  mind  with  the 
impression  of  endless  centuries  of  life  that  she 
gathered  from  the  procession  of  antiquity  on  the 
walls.  There  is  something  alarming  to  youth  in 
the  idea  of  the  early  days  of  a  very  old  person. 

The  drawing-room  was  more  cheerful,  but  Mr. 


128  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Vachell's  study,  which  his  wife  showed  her  as  they 
passed,  made  her  shiver  again.  There  were  objects 
of  stone,  of  clay,  of  mildewed  bronze ;  tiny  domestic 
possessions,  gifts  of  love,  weapons,  tokens  of  mourn- 
ing for  the  dead,  provision  even  for  an  eternity  of 
wandering  beyond  the  grave.  Everywhere  were 
glass  cases  to  preserve  the  imperishable ;  the 
penetrating  dust  of  a  new  city  defiling  them  not- 
withstanding. If  Teresa  had  seen  Life  and  Death 
supping  together  in  the  silent  room,  pledging  one 
another  from  the  old  vessels  that  stood  upon  the 
Professor's  table,  she  could  not  have  felt  more  dis- 
comfort than  she  did. 

"  Do  you  like  these  things  ?  "  Mrs.  Vachell  asked 
her. 

"  Perhaps  I  might  if  I  got  to  know  them,"  she 
admitted,  "  but  they  scare  me  rather." 

"  Come  into  the  drawing-room  and  have  tea  then." 
Mrs.  Vachell  led  the  way  into  the  next  room  and 
rang  the  bell.  "  It  is  only  half -past  five  ;  you  have 
lots  of  time  to  recover.  What  have  you  been 
doing  ?  " 

Teresa  told  her  about  the  Debating  Society  and 
Mr.  Fisk.  "  A  horrible  young  man,"  said  Mrs. 
Vachell.  "  He  isn't  one  of  my  husband's  students, 
luckily,  or  I  should  have  to  ask  him  to  tea.  They 
all  get  brought  here  at  intervals.  They  sit  about  in 
corners  and  balance  cups  on  their  knees  and  spill 
tea  into  the  saucer.  I  wish  you  would  come  and 
help  me  next  time  I  have  to  ask  some  of  them.  I 
believe  you  would  be  good  to  them  and  teach  me 
not  to  dislike  them  so  much." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Teresa,  "  though  I  am  not 
benevolent.  If  people  won't  talk  I  can't  make 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  129 

conversation.    Why  don't  you  ask  Emma  ?     She 
knows  them  all." 

"  That  is  just  why  she  is  no  good,"  Mrs.  Vachell 
explained  while  she  made  tea.  "  It  is  like  a  mother 
and  her  children  in  society.  They  can't  talk  their 
own  nonsense  before  an  audience,  and  they  can't  do 
the  polite  to  each  other.  I  want  you  to  extract 
something  from  the  students.  They  must  have 
interests  of  the  sort  that  one  does  not  air  in  the 
family  circle,  and  strangers  are  the  ideal  safety 
valve  for  that  sort  of  thing." 

"  Are  many  of  them  like  Fisk  ;  wanting  blood  and 
new  governments  and  things  ?  "  Teresa  asked. 

"  That  is  one  of  the  things  I  want  to  know,"  Mrs. 
Vachell  answered.  "  Emma  could  tell  us  so  far  as 
statistics  go,  but  I  want  to  hear  for  myself.  You 
know  I  sit  on  Committees  with  Mrs.  Carpenter  and 
her  lot  because  I  love  organisation,  and  so  many  of 
those  women  who  are  always  talking  and  ordering 
and  doing  the  Nosey  Parker  everywhere  are  just 
tools  for  anybody  in  the  show  who  has  an  axe  to 
grind.  Do  you  understand  about  Boards  of 
Guardians  and  Select  Vestries  and  all  that  part  ?  " 
Teresa  answered  quickly  "  Oh,  no — nothing  what- 
ever. Of  course  I  get  inspectors  and  visitors  on 
my  track  and  I  have  to  help  Emma  with  her  reports. 
But  a  Board  of  Guardians  means  nothing  to  me 
except  a  firm  eye  and  questions  that  I  can't  answer. 
Mother  has  them  to  lunch  sometimes." 

"  Can  she  answer  their  questions  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Vachell. 

"  Surely  you  know  that  Mother  never  answers 
any  questions  ?  "  said  Teresa  very  much  surprised. 
"  She  always  tells  you  something  that  she  thinks 


130  THREE   LOVING   LADIES 

instead,  and  makes  it  seem  as  if  she  had  answered. 
But  I  never  know  whether  it  is  because  she  can't  or 
won't." 

"  I  do  loathe  poverty,"  Mrs.  Vachell  said,  as  if  to 
herself. 

Teresa  went  home  very  little  the  wiser  for  her 
visit,  but  she  felt  greatly  discouraged  by  the  extreme 
age  of  civilisation  as  it  had  been  shown  to  her  at 
the  Vachells'.  It  seemed  to  have  accomplished  so 
little  in  the  time  at  its  disposal. 


CHAPTER   XI 

EVANGELINE'S  baby  was  a  boy,  very  much  to 
Susie's  satisfaction.  It  would  be  going  too  far  to 
say  that  it  had  been  a  grief  to  her  that  she  had  no 
son,  for  grief  and  she  had  met  only  on  the  most 
courtly  terms  since  she  outgrew  the  realities  of 
childhood  which  no  one  escapes.  Her  philosophy 
had  developed  early,  and  since  then  she  had  met 
grief  on  the  terms  of  cavalier  and  lady.  He  had 
bowed  to  her  and  fingered  his  sword  ;  she  had 
curtseyed,  smiled  and  turned  her  back  on  him,  with 
perhaps  a  coy  glance  of  mockery  above  her  fan. 
But  he  paid  his  first  visit  to  Evangeline,  equipped 
for  battle,  when  her  son  was  a  few  months  old. 
Evan  began  making  plans  one  day  for  his  future,  as 
affectionate  fathers  will,  and  the  discussion,  begun 
amicably,  ended  in  such  a  storm  of  passion  from 
Evangeline  as  surprised  and  horrified  him.  A 
doctor  would  have  said  that  she  was  still  weak  and 
unbalanced  after  young  Ivor's  birth ;  the  fact  was 
that  resentment  suppressed  or  tided  over  on  many 
occasions  had  accumulated,  and  was  now  being  paid 
in  one  sum.  Her  natural  gaiety  had  made  her  fairly 
independent  when  it  was  only  she  who  was  to  suffer 
from  Evan's  severity  ;  but  when  it  went  beyond  her 
to  the  child  she  became  savage  in  the  defence  of  her 
offspring.  This  situation  is  as  old  as  the  hills — 
older  than  man — and  the  true  simile  of  the  tigress 


132  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

has  become  so  hackneyed  by  being  tacked  on  to 
every  thwarted  feminine  instinct  that  it  hardly 
arrests  the  eye  on  a  printed  page  ;  but  its  accuracy 
is  age-proof.  The  occasion  for  her  outburst  was  as 
trifling  as  it  could  be  ;  it  generally  is  when  a  storm 
is  long  brewing.  Evan  had  chosen  for  his  peroration 
the  unfortunate  words,  " — and  we  shall  teach  him 
discipline  early." 

He  spoke  from  a  full  heart  and  meant,  as  Queen 
Elizabeth  is  said  to  have  performed  upon  the 
virginals,  "  excellently  well."  Evangeline  pictured 
the  young  creature  that  was  to  have  been  a  marvel 
of  joy,  crushed  by  fear  of  its  natural  friends,  pursued 
by  something  dark  and  threatening  that  was  called 
"  Right,"  so  that  all  sweetness  of  the  day  that  was 
called  "  Wrong  "  must  be  loved  and  followed  in 
secret.  She  pictured  the  child  lonely  in  a  garden, 
with  a  dog  for  his  friend  and  his  father  for  an  enemy, 
and  she  herself,  perhaps,  under  suspicion  as  being 
in  the  confidence  of  the  enemy.  He  would  be  like 
Romulus  and  Remus,  she  thought,  as  her  horror 
gathered  volume.  She  was  always  a  very  simple 
thinker.  In  any  crisis  her  mind's  eye  looked  over 
a  wide  space  of  whatever  emotion  was  in  possession 
of  her,  and  some  episode,  historical,  literary  or 
personal,  often  arose  before  her  as  a  point  of  focus 
for  the  end  she  was  aiming  at.  Just  now  she  was 
overwhelmed  with  pity  for  the  awful  loneliness  of 
a  child's  nature  with  no  human  love  to  comfort  it. 
She  knew  herself  what  a  place  animals  can  take  at 
such  times.  Romulus  and  Remus  had  been  mothered 
by  a  wolf,  but  must  her  Ivor  be  abandoned  to  such  a 
makeshift,  while  she,  adoring  him  with  all  her  heart 
and  soul,  was  chained  by  Evan  to  the  Juggernaut's 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  133 

car  that  was  to  pursue  the  child  through  life  ?  At 
the  moment  she  pictured  her  husband's  religion  as  an 
all-devouring  monster. 

He  sat  meanwhile  silent,  frowning  at  her  grief  and 
wondering  how  his  domestic  security  had  come  to 
collapse  like  this  at  the  breath  of  a  high  ideal.  Was 
his  wife  wholly  worldly  and  given  over  to  the  worship 
of  self-indulgence  ?  Did  she  mean  to  bring  the  boy 
up  to  be  a  pampered  young  ass  with  no  sense  of 
duty  to  God  or  man  ?  He  said  nothing,  but  thought 
very  dark  thoughts. 

Presently  Evangeline's  indomitable  optimism 
came  back  to  the  rescue.  She  had  exhausted  her 
emotion ;  Romulus  and  Remus  had  played  their 
part  in  her  imagination  and  retired.  Pity  remained, 
but  there  was  also  hope  and  the  fighting  strength 
of  the  jungle  mother.  She  would  remain  Ivor's 
mother  and  play  the  part  of  the  wolf  as  well.  Evan 
should  never  get  at  her  darling  while  she  lived ; 
she  would  throw  herself  between  them.  It  was 
not  until  very  much  later  in  the  tragedy  that  she 
began  to  think  of  using  cunning  in  her  defence. 
At  present  she  had  no  idea  of  decoying  an  enemy 
away ;  that  instinct  had  not  yet  been  roused  in 
her  so  she  still  fought  in  the  open.  After  the 
outburst  of  protest  with  which  she  first  met  his 
innocent  remark,  and  the  passionate  tears  that 
followed,  she  cheered  up  again  and  was  prepared 
to  shake  hands. 

"  It  will  be  all  right,"  she  said  confidently.  "  I 
know  you  love  him  as  much  as  I  do." 

"  I  love  him  more,  for  I  care  what  becomes  of 
him,"  was  Evan's  grave  reply. 

"  You    are    not    going    to    beat   him   the   first 


134  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

time  he  disobeys  you  ?  "  she  asked  in  renewed 
panic. 

"  Control  yourself,  for  goodness  sake,"  he  replied 
impatiently.  "  He  is  only  a  baby.  I  have  nothing 
to  do  with  your  nursery  arrangements.  Let  him 
tyrannise  over  you  and  make  his  life  and  yours  a 
misery.  There  is  time  enough  for  you  to  think 
over  whether  I  am  right,  and  to  see  the  result  of  de- 
priving him  of  all  means  of  defending  himself  against 
ill-fortune  in  this  world  and  damnation  in  the  next." 

"  And  when  he  is  older,  if  I  still  think  you  are 
wrong ?  "  she  pursued  breathlessly. 

"  Then — I  am  sorry,  Evangeline — I  shall  not 
hesitate  to  remove  him  from  your  charge." 

"  You  couldn't !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  They  would 
never  let  you  !  " 

"  I  don't  know  the  exact  law,  but  I  fancy  I  could 
safeguard  him  and  still  allow  you  to  see  him  in  an 
ordinary  way  without  your  being  in  authority. 
But  all  this  is  absurd.  We  are  making  ourselves 
miserable  about  nothing.  Go  up  to  him  now  and 
spoil  him  to  your  heart's  content.  But  think  over 
what  I  have  said.  You  have  so  much  good  in  you, 
Evangeline,  if  you  would  only  not  let  yourself  be 
carried  away  by  this  terror  of  all  pain  and  dis- 
comfort." 

"  I  didn't  make  a  sound  when  Ivor  was  born," 
she  said  in  amazement. 

"  I  know.  Don't  think  you  hadn't  my  admira- 
tion because  I  didn't  say  so.  I  was  thinking  of 
the  pains  of  self-sacrifice  and  obedience  to  rules 
not  understood." 

"  If  I  can  keep  Ivor  by  bearing  those,  too,  I 
will,"  she  assured  him. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  135 

"  Of  course  you  can,  darling,"  he  said,  mis- 
understanding. "  We  shall  all  be  happy  at  last, 
you  will  see." 

At  Christmas  they  went  again  to  stay  with 
Evangeline's  parents.  Ivor  found  his  grandmother 
all  that  he  could  possibly  desire.  He  fell  madly 
in  love  with  her  and  she  made  very  little  attempt 
to  conceal  her  triumph  from  his  nurse.  Ivor  loved 
the  nurse  dearly  and  she  loved  him,  so  that  alto- 
gether he  never  suffered  a  moment's  anxiety  during 
his  visit.  War  was  declared  over  him  ;  a  long  and 
bitter  war  as  it  turned  out ;  yet  his  life  became  for 
the  time  being  all  the  sweeter  in  consequence. 
Susie  entered  the  battlefield  on  the  side  of  Evangeline 
and  motherhood  in  general,  of  "  not  worrying  about 
things  that  can't  be  helped,"  and  of  opposition 
to  men  who  "  will  be  disagreeable."  Love,  wounded 
by  Ivor's  mischievous  treachery  at  times  when  his 
grandmother's  blandishments  must  be  left  for  sleep 
and  exercise,  brought  nurse  in  on  the  side  of  the 
father  and  discipline.  It  was  she  who  had  to 
endure  the  nerve-racking  screams  and  struggles 
that  took  place  on  the  other  side  of  the  drawing- 
room  door,  and  the  wakeful  nights  caused  by  excite- 
ment and  "  the  very  purest  chocolate "  from 
Grannie's  drawer  which  Ivor  had  learned  to  open 
so  cleverly.  She  had  to  put  up  with  the  gentlest 
and  most  persistent  advice,  with  seeing  windows 
covertly  opened  or  shut  when  otherwise  arranged 
by  her  with  the  tenderest  care  for  Ivor's  comfort, 
with  clothes  added  to  or  removed  from  what  he 
was  wearing.  Mothers  of  any  civilised  country 
will  bear  witness  that  such  trifles  are  more  dangerous 
to  domestic  peace  than  the  franker  brawls  of  the 


136  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

gutter.  If  Susie  and  the  nurse  had  let  themselves 
go  with  the  same  abandon  as  the  ladies  of  honest 
Robert's  beat,  Ivor  would  have  suffered  less  in  the 
end  and  his  father  and  mother  might  have  called 
quits  after  the  exchange  of  a  black  eye  and  a  broken 
nose.  As  it  was,  Evangeline  took  no  part  in  the 
daily  duels  so  long  as  her  son  remained  unscathed 
between  the  contending  parties ;  but  she  noted 
Evan's  silent  criticism.  She  saw  that  every  scene 
of  wilfulness  strengthened  his  position  against 
her,  and  her  heart  hardened  towards  him.  Once 
when  Mrs.  Vachell  asked  her  to  lunch  she  arrived 
there  so  discouraged  that  she  could  hardly  keep  up 
a  pretence  of  other  conversation. 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  be  so  stupid,"  she  said  at 
last,  "  but  I  am  tired  to  death.  Mother  and  Ivor's 
nurse  do  get  on  so  badly,  though  I  believe  it  is 
really  one-sided  because  Mother  seems  not  to  notice 
at  all ;  but  she  puts  nurse's  back  up  and  Ivor 
takes  advantage  of  it  to  get  everything  he  wants, 
and  I  don't  think  she  would  stay  through  another 
visit.  Evan  thinks  it  is  my  fault  and  that  I  spoil 
Ivor.  I  do  so  hate  anger  and  fuss.  What  would 
you  do  ?  " 

"  I  should  tell  the  nurse  that  she  must  be  polite 
to  your  mother  or  go,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  I  wouldn't  do  that  for  a  thousand  pounds," 
said  Evangeline.  "  She  worships  Ivor  and  would 
give  her  life  for  him  I  really  think." 

'  You  would  easily  find  another  who  would  do 
just  the  same,"  Mrs.  Vachell  remarked,  "  and  it 
might  be  good  for  him  not  to  depend  so  much  on 
one  person." 

"  No,  no,"  Evangeline  repeated.     "  I  won't  do 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  137 

that.  But  people  can  make  one's  life  a  burden, 
can't  they  !  Just  by  disapproving." 

"  I  never  allow  anyone's  vagaries  to  bother  me," 
said  Mrs.  Vachell  coolly.  "  I  do  the  best  I  can 
and  am  proof  against  black  looks.  Angry  faces 
are  as  soon  dead  as  merry  ones  and  their  memory 
is  not  kept  green." 

"  Do  you  think  a  man's  feeling  about  children 
is  always  different  from  a  woman's  ?  "  Evangeline 
asked  presently. 

"  Yes,  very  different,"  Mrs.  Vachell  replied.  "  I 
think,  if  you  ask  me,  they  are  the  most  ram-headed, 
firebrand,  poker-fingered  lumps  of  folly  that  could 
have  been  planted  on  an  unhappy  world  to  wreck 
its  comfort."  She  spoke  in  a  low,  deliberate  voice. 
"  Damned  fools,"  she  added  lightly.  "  Don't  you 
think  so  in  your  heart  ?  " 

Evangeline  was  just  going  to  answer  when  she 
remembered  her  husband's  description  of  Mrs. 
Vachell  after  the  Prices'  party,  "  intelligent  "  and 
"  cultivated  "  and  "  talks  like  a  lady."  She  saw 
a  very  old  mistake  for  the  first  time,  fresh  in  all 
its  eternal  comedy,  and  was  lifted  right  out  of  her 
present  difficulties  by  the  amusement  of  it.  "  How 
gloriously  funny  !  "  she  exclaimed. 

"  What  is  funny  ?  "  Mrs.  Vachell  asked,  a  little 
displeased. 

"  That  you  should  think  that,  and — Evan  was 
so  delighted  with  you  !  "  Evangeline  blurted  out. 

"  Pooh  !  "  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  I  suppose  you 
think  I  was  trying  to  please  him  ?  " 

"  Oh,  gracious,  no,"  said  the  poor  girl.  "  I  told 
him  he  knew  nothing  about  you." 

"  Did  you  ?     Why  did  you  say  that  ?  " 


138  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Oh,  because  I  knew  you  don't  believe  in  any  of 
the  things  that  he  likes." 

"  My  dear  girl,  how  can  you  know  that  ?  What 
don't  I  believe  in  ?  " 

"  I  mean  his  kind  of  religion,  and  rectitude,  and 
making  oneself  uncomfortable  about  nothing,  and 
all  that  misunderstanding  of  everybody  and  looking 
out  for  badness." 

"  You  don't  need  to  look  far,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  said  Evangeline,  surprised. 
"  Now  that  is  just  what  I  don't.  I  think  there 
would  be  hardly  any  badness  if  people  didn't  make 
it  by  believing  in  it.  But  why  do  you  think  men 
are  so  stupid  ?  You  can't  have  thought  so  in  the 
war "  She  became  suddenly  indignant. 

"  If  men  had  not  been  what  they  are  there  would 
have  been  no  war,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  Oh,  but — good  gracious  !  Look  how  women 
fight !  "  Evangeline  exclaimed  in  amazement,  "  and 
all  about  nothing  !  Men  fight  for  something,  and — 
I  can't  bear  to  hear  you  say  beastly  things  about 

them  when  they  did "  Her  voice  broke  and 

she  stopped.  Her  eyes  were  bright  and  troubled 
as  she  looked  at  Mrs.  Vachell  in  the  hope  of  having 
mistaken  her  words. 

"  Don't  take  what  I  say  so  much  to  heart,"  Mrs. 
Vachell  said  gently.  "  You  are  a  very  feminine 
woman.  You  ought  to  turn  your  sympathies  on 
to  your  own  sex,  who  have  to  endure  seeing  their 
lovers  and  sons  killed  because  countries  are  governed 
by  brutes  and  knaves  and  idiots.  When  your  baby 
goes  to  war  and  your  husband  urges  him  on  with 
applause  and  he  leaves  a  wife  and  probably  two  or 
three  ruined  women  behind  him " 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  139 

Evangeline's  tears  had  vanished  in  utter  astonish- 
ment at  the  novelty  of  this  view  and  her  own 
fundamental  disbelief  in  its  reality.  There  was 
nothing  in  it  to  stir  her  passion  as  it  was  remote 
from  anything  she  could  ever  feel  and  she  did  not 
believe  anyone  else  felt  it  either. 

"  Of  course  Ivor  will  go  without  any  egging  on," 
she  said.  "  I  should  die  of  shame  if  I  had  even  to 
open  the  door  for  him.  And  as  for  ruined  women — 
Evan  is  not  like  that  nor  are  my  people,  any  of  them. 
I  don't  see  why  Ivor  should  grow  up  a  pig  any 
more  than  they  did.  But " — she  remembered 
again  what  had  amused  her — "  I  do  wish  you  would 
come  and  say  all  that  to  Evan.  I  do  want  to  prove 
to  him  that  I  was  right,  and  of  course  I  can't  tell 
him  what  you  said.  He  wouldn't  believe  it  and 
would  think  I  was  being  like  a  woman." 

This  last  slip  of  the  tongue  was  unfortunate  and 
might  have  led  to  such  divergence  of  opinion  as 
would  have  deprived  Evangeline  of  those  further 
talks  with  Mrs.  Vachell  that  had  so  much  influence 
on  her  future.  But  they  heard  the  front  door  bell 
ring  and  Mrs.  Vachell  said,  "  That  is  probably  Mr. 
Fisk.  He  said  he  might  come  this  afternoon.  I 
wish  you  would  stay  a  little ;  he  might  really 
interest  you." 

"  Who  is  he  ?  "  Evangeline  asked. 

"  One  of  the  stupidest  of  the  students,  but  a 

reformer "  Mr.  Fisk  was  announced.  He 

began  of  course  about  the  weather  and  asked 
Evangeline  whether  she  had  "  been  long  in  these 
parts,"  and  so  on ;  he  omitted  none  of  the  steps 
to  acquaintance  by  which  his  kindred  are  accus- 
tomed to  reach  the  more  companionable  stage  of 


140  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

invitations  to  "  tea  and  s'rimps."  Mrs.  Vachell 
soon  became  impatient  and  cut  him  short.  "  Don't 
let  us  be  social  any  more,  Mr.  Fisk,"  she  suggested, 
"  but  tell  us  how  your  campaign  is  getting  on." 

He  plunged  at  once  into  oratorical  phrases  and 
Evangeline  listened,  bewildered.  Mrs.  Vachell  led 
him  on  by  subtle  questions  to  the  law  of  marriage. 

"  Are  you  in  favour  of  the  coming  of  women  ?  " 
he  asked  Evangeline. 

"  Where  to  ?  "  she  asked.  She  was  deeply 
interested. 

"  What  people  call  feminism,"  Mrs.  Vachell 
explained.  "  Don't  you  want  to  take  your  share 
in  the  world  ?  " 

"  What  sort  of  share  ?  "  said  Evangeline.  "  I 
thought  I  had  got  one ;  but  I  am  too  stupid  to  do 
things,  if  you  mean  having  a  profession." 

"  Have  you  ever  tried,  may  I  ask  ?  "  Mr.  Fisk 
inquired.  "  Perhaps  you  hardly  know  your  powers." 

"  You  like  people  to  be  happy,  I  know,"  said 
Mrs.  Vachell.  "  Why  not  take  steps  to  make  them 
so  ?  Don't  you  find,  for  instance,  that  men  have 
too  much  power  over  their  families  ?  " 

Evangeline's  private  anxieties  awoke.  "  Do  you 
mean  when  they  can  say  how  children  are  to  be 
brought  up  ?  " 

"  Yes,  that  among  other  things."  Mrs.  Vachell 
observed  her  closely. 

"  They  oughtn't  to,"  said  Evangeline.  "  They 
don't  understand " 

"  Have  you  read  Iris  Smith's  pamphlet  on  the 
matriarchate  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Fisk. 

"  No,  I  haven't  read  anything  deep,"  she  re- 
plied. "  What  is  the  thing  ?  You  don't  mean 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  141 

that  sort  of  solid  turquoise  ?  "  She  supposed  him 
to  have  changed  the  subject  out  of  modesty.  He 
looked  scared  and  Mrs.  Vachell  laughed. 

"  Mrs.  Hatton  is  only  a  potential  ally,"  she 
explained  to  him.  "  She  has  the  real  instinct, 
which  is  worth  all  the  learning  in  the  world.  Books 
are  only  useful  for  downing  the  catchwords  of 
stupid  people  who  won't  think.  How  would  you 
like  it,"  she  continued  to  Evangeline,  "  if  your 
husband  insisted  on  your  boy  being  brought  up  at 
some  particular  school  and  you  knew  that  he  would 
be  bullied  and  misunderstood  there,  and  that  all 
the  tenderness  you  love  would  be  crushed  out  of 
him  ;  and  suppose  you  found  after  he  went  that 
he  came  back  despising  you  in  his  heart  for  being 
of  the  inferior  sex,  though  he  still  caressed  you  as 
a  dear  old  silly  whom  he  could  get  material  com- 
forts from  and  put  down  with  one  hand  in  any 
discussion  ?  " 

"  Boys  aren't  like  that,"  said  Evangeline  frown- 
ing. "  I  know  they  are  not — not  English  boys, 
anyhow,"  she  added  with  a  look  at  Mr.  Fisk's  hair, 
to  which  she  had  taken  a  sudden  dislike. 

"  They  have  been  just  like  that  since  a  date  so 
far  back  that  I  don't  believe  you  have  ever  heard 
of  it,"  Mrs.  Vachell  assured  her.  "  That  is  why 
you  will  find  it  interesting  to  read  books  some  day." 

Evangeline  stayed  to  tea  and  came  back  more 
incensed  than  ever  against  Evan's  theories  and  more 
than  ever  in  love  with  his  masculinity. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ANYONE  entering  the  Prices'  house  on  any  Wednes- 
day afternoon  between  3.30  and  6  would  hear  from 
the  staircase  and  even  from  the  front  door  a  chatter 
and  clatter  of  cups  and  conversation  and  shrill 
laughter.  In  a  short  time  the  drawing-room  bell 
would  ring,  a  door  would  open  upstairs  and  louder 
sounds  of  talking  would  burst  out ;  then  one  of 
the  Price  girls  would  be  heard  to  say,  "  Well,  good- 
bye, then.  Tuesday  week,"  or  something  like 
that,  and  a  female  form,  expensively  dressed,  the 
remains  of  a  farewell  smile  still  on  the  face,  would 
pass  down  the  stairs  and  probably  meet  the  maid- 
servant on  her  way  up  with  another  batch  from 
the  front  door.  On  some  Wednesdays  as  many  as 
thirty  women  called  on  Mrs.  Price.  Susie,  who 
"  believed  in  keeping  up  with  people,"  as  she  said, 
was  there  one  day  soon  after  Evangeline  had  left 
her.  The  Prices  made  much  of  her  because  of 
her  triple  connection  with  Millport,  London  and 
the  county,  and  the  girls  described  Cyril  as  "  per- 
fectly killing  !  "  They  had  a  great  respect  for  him 
as  soon  as  they  saw  that  he  had  none  whatever  for 
them. 

Perhaps  it  was  some  survival  of  the  days  when 
slavery  was  upheld  from  the  pulpit  by  a  man  of 
God  in  their  city  that  gave  one  or  two  of  the  older 
Millport  families  their  exaggerated  esteem  for  an 

142 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  143 

impressive  manner.  They  knew  by  ancestral  ex- 
perience that  the  top  dog  is  the  thing  to  be.  They 
sat  as  near  the  top  as  they  could  and  gazed  with 
admiration  at  those  who  pressed  on  them  from 
above.  No  one  who  understood  Cyril  could  suspect 
him  of  being  impressive,  but  he  took  no  interest  in 
the  Prices,  so  their  natural  inference  from  his  be- 
haviour was  that  he  must  be  used  to  something 
better  than  themselves,  and  that  would  be  some- 
thing very  good  indeed.  The  train  of  thought  runs 
easily  to  the  conclusion  that  Cyril  was  worth  cultivat- 
ing. Half  the  things  he  said  would  have  con- 
victed him  of  "  giving  himself  airs  "  had  he  been 
a  poor  man  and  polite  to  the  Prices,  but,  "  Have 
you  heard  what  the  General  said  ?  "  they  repeated 
to  one  another  after  every  occasion  when  they  met 
him.  Even  such  trifles  as  "  what  he  said  when 
Father  offered  him  a  cigar  at  the  Club,"  were  re- 
ported, and  the  answer,  "  No,  thanks  ;  have  you 
seen  the  paper  ?  "  produced  an  avalanche  of  delight. 

"  But  what  did  he  mean,  dear  ?  "  asked  poor 
Mrs.  Price.  "  I  don't  see  anything  particular  in 
that." 

"  Oh,  mother !  Of  course  he  wanted  to  get  rid 
of  Dad ;  can't  you  see  ?  '  Have  you  seen  the 
paper !  '  I  think  it  is  delicious.  You  can  just 
imagine  him  handing  it  over  and  sloping  off." 

On  this  afternoon  Mrs.  Price  sat  down  beside 
Susie  and  began  to  make  herself  agreeable.  "  Your 
daughter  has  left  you  now,  hasn't  she,  Mrs.  — er  ?  " 
she  began.  "  I  hope  Drage  suits  her.  My  son  was 
there  for  a  time  and  didn't  care  for  it." 

"It  is  not  a  beautiful  place,  of  course,"  Susie 
replied,  "  but  to  see  those  boys  back  from  the  war 


144  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

enjoying  themselves  so  much  is  as  good  as  any 
scenery.  Your  son  told  Evangeline  of  the  un- 
fortunate accident  that  prevented  him  from  going 
out.  She  was  so  sorry  for  him." 

"Well,  I  wasn't  sorry,"  said  Mrs.  Price.  "I 
think  the  whole  arrangement  of  conscription  was 
scandalous.  They  took  people  who  were  absolutely 
necessary  for  carrying  on  what  business  there  was, 
and  sent  them  out.  Joseph  has  a  very  weak 
throat  and  would  have  been  absolutely  useless,  as 
I  told  him ;  though  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
go.  However,  it  is  all  over  now  and  I  hope  to 
goodness  they  will  get  all  the  labour  troubles 
settled  soon.  The  price  of  everything  is  dreadful. 
I  don't  know  how  we  are  to  go  on  living." 

"  By  the  bye,"  asked  Susie,  "  has  anything 
been  settled  about  your  taking  Aldwych  ?  " 

An  unpleasant  recollection  rose  in  Mrs.  Price's 
mind.  Higgins  had  reported  to  one  of  the  maids 
after  the  party  "  how  disrespectful  that  military 
gentleman  that  came  had  spoke  "  about  wealth 
in  general  and  the  Prices  in  particular.  He  had 
retailed  Cyril's  remarks  about  getting  the  smell 
of  money  out  of  the  house  and  the  likelihood  of 
the  Prices  demoralising  the  Aldwych  tenants 
like  the  plague.  Higgins  had  told  the  infamous  tale 
three  times  at  supper,  and  Hopkins,  Mrs.  Price's 
maid,  had  repeated  it  to  her  mistress.  The  young 
Prices  had  heard  of  it,  but  paid  little  attention. 
It  only  stung  them  to  further  admiration  of  Cyril, 
for  since  the  Profiteering  Act  had  been  passed  and 
half  the  jokes  in  Punch  were  about  people  who 
looked  rather  like  Dad  and  Mother  they  had  begun 
to  feel  that  the  gilt  on  their  gingerbread  had  better 


THREE   LOVING  LADIES  145 

be  covered  a  little  to  prevent  rubbing.  The  parents, 
however,  did  not  like  it. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  we  can  afford  to  take  it 
at  all,"  Mrs.  Price  continued.  "  It  is  only  people 
who  have  made  money  in  the  war  that  can  do  that 
sort  of  thing  now.  Of  course  Mr.  Price  actually 
lost  more  than  he  made,  and  with  the  income  tax 
and  everything  his  idea  was  really  to  give  up  and 
go  into  the  country.  Aldwych  would  need  a  great 
deal  of  keeping  up." 

"  Would  it  ?  "  said  Susie.  "  I  daresay.  But 
you  would  find  the  life  so  delightful,  wouldn't  you  ? 
I  think  the  unrest  in  a  big  town  is  so  trying,  and 
the  unemployment  makes  it  so  much  worse."  Mrs. 
Gainsborough  was  sitting  on  a  sofa  at  her  left 
hand,  talking  to  a  clergyman's  wife,  and  there  was 
a  sudden  silence  as  Susie  spoke.  The  young  Prices 
had  gone  into  the  little  room  beyond  to  discuss 
some  theatricals  they  were  getting  up  for  a 
charity. 

"  Why  does  the  Principal  allow  Mr.  Cranston  to 
go  on  as  he  does  ?  "  Mrs.  Price  asked,  turning  to 
Mrs.  Gainsborough. 

"  He  doesn't,"  she  replied  distractedly.  "  It 
drives  him  nearly  wild,  but  he  can't  do  any- 
thing." 

"He  is  making  it  much  harder  for  everybody," 
said  Mrs.  Abel,  the  clergyman's  wife.  "  My  husband 
says  he  is  doing  incalculable  harm  in  our  neighbour- 
hood. They  are  not  the  very  poorest  people  there 
and  they  all  have  time  to  read  and  they  are  great 
orators — " 

"  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Mrs.  Vachell,"  the  maid 
announced. 


146  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Ah,  this  is  delightful !  "  Mrs.  Carpenter  ex- 
claimed, advancing  first  and  shaking  hands  with 
everybody.  "  You  are  so  wise  to  go  on  keeping  to 
one  day,"  she  said  to  Mrs.  Price.  "It  is  almost 
the  only  way  of  seeing  one's  friends.  I  should 
love  it  if  I  had  nothing  to  do,  but  if  I  tried  to  keep 
an  afternoon  to  myself  someone  would  be  sure  to 
call  a  special  meeting  somewhere  and  I  should  have 
to  go  off.  And  how  is  your  dear  girl  ?  (To  Susie.) 
Wrapped  up  in  hubby  and  the  baby,  I  suppose. 
I  hope  he  is  not  getting  his  teeth  too  soon  ;  it  is 
such  a  pity  when  they  do  ;  they  only  decay  earlier. 
And  how  is  Emma  ?  (To  Mrs.  Gainsborough.)  I 
meet  her  here,  there  and  everywhere.  I  think  she 
does  too  much.  She  has  not  been  accustomed  to 
so  much  drudgery  as  an  old  soldier's  daughter 
like  me.  Papa  used  to  hear  us  our  Greek  Testa- 
ment every  morning  at  half -past  six.  You  know 
those  were  the  good  old  days  at  Universities  !  He 
never  gave  it  up  even  when  he  went  to  India. 
Then  we  had  our  classes  and  our  riding-master  and 
the  old  drill-sergeant,  and  my  mother  used  to  take 
us  round  among  the  wives  and  tell  them  what  to 
do  with  their  babies.  Girls  haven't  the  same 
strength  now.  I  make  Baba  lie  down  for  an  hour 
every  day  after  lunch  while  I  write  letters,  and  I 
am  sure  Emma  ought  to  do  the  same.  And  how 
is  your  parish,  Mrs.  Abel  ?  "  She  settled  down  at 
last  to  one  victim  and  let  the  others  go. 

Presently  they  heard  men's  voices  in  the  hall, 
some  heavy  stumbling  upstairs  and  a  door  shut. 
Mrs.  Price  listened,  hesitated  and  rang  the  bell. 
"  Has  anything  happened,  Gregory  ?  "  she  asked 
the  maid. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  147 

"  Mr.  Joseph,  ma'am,  brought  home  a  young  man 
who  got  knocked  down  by  the  car.  He  wished  you 
not  to  be  troubled  as  there  is  nothing  serious  and 
he  is  expected  to  be  all  right  in  a  few  minutes. 
Mr.  Varens  is  with  him  in  Mr.  Price's  study." 

"  I  had  better  go  and  see  what  is  the  matter," 
said  Mrs.  Price.  "  Don't  disturb  yourselves ;  I 
shall  be  back  in  a  minute."  She  was  gone  nearly 
a  quarter-of-an-hour,  but  her  guests  waited  on. 
Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Mrs.  Vachell  had  begun  an 
animated  conversation  on  strikes  and  Susie  was 
listening.  When  Mrs.  Price  came  back  she  looked 
quite  scared. 

"It  is  a  young  man  called  Fisk,"  she  said. 
"  David  Varens  says  he  is  one  of  the  students  and 
you  would  know  him,"  she  turned  to  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough. "  He  is  quite  himself  again,  but  he  was 
stunned  for  the  moment  and  I  don't  think  he  knew 
where  he  was.  He  was  talking  a  great  deal  in  a 
very  noisy  way  about  blood,  and  there  wasn't  a 
scratch  on  him  !  I  have  telephoned  for  the  doctor 
to  make  quite  sure  he  is  all  right,  though  he  says 
he  can  go  home.  Do  you  know  anything  of 
him  ?  " 

"Yes,  I  do,"  said  Mrs.  Gainsborough,  "and  if 
he  is  talking  about  blood  you  may  be  sure  he  is 
quite  well.  He  thinks  of  very  little  else ;  it  is 
almost  a  pity  in  some  ways  if  he  hasn't  lost  any. 
We  all  know  about  him  and  he  is  the  greatest 
nuisance  and  trouble  to  my  husband.  How  did  it 
happen  ?  " 

"  Joseph  was  driving  Mr.  Varens  back  to  tea 
here  and  the  young  man  came  out  from  behind 
some  cart  when  they  were  crossing  the  road.  He 


148  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

was  not  thinking  where  he  was  going  and  walked 
right  into  the  car ;  but  fortunately  it  was  hardly 
moving." 

"  Dear  me,  what  a  shock  it  must  have  given 
him  !  "  said  Susie. 

"  Have  you  got  brandy  in  the  house  ?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Abel. 

"  Of  course  we  have,  thank  you,"  Mrs.  Price  was 
greatly  offended  at  the  suggestion  of  such  incom- 
pleteness in  a  perfect  establishment.  As  bad  as 
asking  King  George  whether  he  kept  a  hair  brush. 
"  That  is  not  the  point.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that 
he  is  dangerous,  Mrs.  Gainsborough  ?  " 

"  Not  more  than  a  flying  soda-water  bottle," 
she  answered  nervously.  The  little  contretemps 
about  the  brandy  had  flurried  her  and  probably 
suggested  the  comparison. 

"  I  think  Teresa  mentioned  him  once,"  said  Susie, 
who  always  came  to  the  rescue  at  any  hint  of  dis- 
pute. "  A  Communist,  isn't  he  ?  " 

"  A  very  determined  one,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  What  nonsense  !  "  Mrs.  Price  exclaimed.  "  A 
great  many  of  my  relations  are  Communists  and 
I  am  quite  sure  this  young  man  doesn't  look  like 
one.  He  must  be  pretending."  Joseph  came  in 
just  then. 

"  The  doctor  has  come, '  he  remarked,  "  and 
says  he'd  better  go  t'  bed.  There's  nothing  the 
matter,  but  David  says  he'll  leave  a  note  on  the 
chap's  people  on  th'  way  back.  They  live  close 
by  th'  station.  Kerious  sort  of  filer,  he  is.  Called 
me  '  Moloch  '  when  he  w's  coming  round.  Who 
was  Moloch,  d'you  remember  ?  "  he  asked  Mrs. 
Vachell.  "  I  can't  just  get  it  for  th'  moment." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  149 

"  Something  to  do  with  blood,  wasn't  he  ?  " 
Mrs.  Vachell  suggested. 

"  Ah,  thaat's  it,"  Joseph  replied  contentedly. 
"  Script'ral  allusion  'f  some  sort  I  w's  sure.  He's 
talking  about  blood  all  th'  time  and  not  a  scratch 
on  him  anywhere,  't's  most  kerious." 

"  Some  people  have  such  a  prejudice  against 
cars,  particularly  if  they  are  not  in  them,"  said 
Susie.  "  And  if  he  is  a  Communist  he  is  quite 
sure  to  think  he  ought  to  have  one.  And  so  ought 
everybody,  I  do  think,  if  they  can.  When  cheap 
ones  are  made  in  large  quantities  I  am  sure  people 
will  be  happier  and  more  contented." 

"  Except  those  who  make  them,"  said  Mrs. 
Vachell.  She  was  standing  up  by  the  mantel- 
piece, fingering  a  matchbox  on  the  corner.  "  Or 
shall  we  contrive  that  Mr.  Fisk  gets  inside  one  as 
soon  as  possible  and  you  and  I  take  a  turn  at  the 
workshops,  Mrs.  Fulton  ?  " 

"  No,  I  think  we  are  all  much  better  where  we 
are,"  Susie  replied  smiling.  "  Every  man  to  his 
last.  But  I  do  certainly  think  that  conditions 
ought  to  be  made  better.  I  believe  if  all  that  sort 
of  thing  were  arranged  everyone  would  settle  down 
much  more  comfortably.  Beauty  is  such  a  happy 
thing.  I  find,  myself,  that  I  don't  mind  how  simply 
I  live  so  long  as  I  have  music  and  books  and  so  on 
and  if  I  can  get  out  into  the  country  sometimes. 
These  ugly  streets  are  so  depressing." 

"  You  must  meet  Mr.  Cranston  and  see  what  you 
can  do  with  him,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  I  don't  think  Mrs.  Fulton  would  get  on  with 
him  at  all,"  put  in  Mrs.  Gainsborough  in  a  great 
flurry.  Her  imagination  flew  to  a  possible  scene 


150  THREE  LOVING   LADIES 

of  inextricable  confusion  and  she  turned  quite  red 
with  embarrassment. 

"  No,  do,  Mrs.  Fulton,"  said  Mrs.  Abel  anxiously. 
"  I  wish  you  would  speak  to  him  and  see  if  you 
can't  influence  him.  What  you  say  is  perfectly 
true.  My  husband  would  be  so  grateful  to 

you." 

"  Well,  I  hope  you  will  ask  me  to  come  too," 
said  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  I  can  support  you  with  all 
the  facts  if  you  want  them.  Mr.  Cranston  talks 
the  greatest  nonsense.  He  should  come  down  to 
our  place  and  talk  to  the  women  I  have  to  deal 
with  and  get  at  the  practical  side  of  what  they 
want.  He  would  find  that  if  he  stopped  the  men 
drinking  and  made  them  bring  home  their  wages 
there  would  be  plenty — abundance  even — to  live 
on  ;  and  if  it  were  made  a  criminal  offence  for  a 
man  to  run  after  a  young  girl " 

"  Or  for  a  girl  to  run  after  4a  young  man,"  Mrs. 
Gainsborough  interrupted  nervously.  "  They  so 
often  do,  you  know." 

"  Not  unless  they  are  taught  to  do  it,"  Susie 
objected,  her  eyes  wide  with  reproach. 

Joseph  Price  sat  on  the  back  of  a  sofa  looking 
from  one  lady  to  the  other  and  jingling  the  money 
in  his  pockets.  His  mother  was  waiting  to  ring  the 
bell  and  have  them  all  shown  out.  The  girls  had 
come  from  the  other  room  and  were  standing  at 
the  back  wondering  what  it  was  all  about. 

"  I  am  afraid  we  must  be  going,"  said  Mrs. 
Gainsborough,  feeling  that  she  had  not  said  the 
right  thing  and  wishing  Emma  were  there. 

"  You  m'st  have  a  talk  to  Fisk,"  said  Joseph  to 
Susie.  "  You'd  like  him ;  he's  really  a  very 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  151 

int'resting   filer.     I   wonder   if   he's   still   talking 
about  blood ;    p'raps  I'd  better  go  and  see." 

"  Well,  you  will  come  and  meet  Mr.  Cranston, 
won't  you,  Mrs.  Fulton  ?  "  Mrs.  Vachell  said.  She 
held  out  her  hand  to  say  good-bye  to  Mrs.  Price 
and  they  all  went  downstairs. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TERESA  was  staying  with  Evangeline  at  Drage. 
Evangeline  had  received  a  letter  from  her  a  week 
before  saying,  "  I  want  you  to  ask  me  to  stay  with 
you  for  a  few  days.  David  has  asked  me  to  marry 
him  and  I  can  hardly  make  you  understand  how 
much  I  want  to  and  at  the  same  time  explain  why 
I  have  refused.  You  will  think  it  silly,  because 
you  don't  take  sayings  literally  and  there  are  some 
that  I  can't  take  generally.  If  I  had  a  lot  of  money 
I  should  see  written  up  on  the  walls  all  round  me, 
"  Sell  all  that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor.'  I 
couldn't  live  in  the  middle  of  it  and  just  dole  out 
what  was  left  from  the  expenses  of  a  big  house. 
David  won't  see  it.  If  only  his  father  had  not 
died  !  Then  we  should  have  been  married  and  I 
couldn't  have  gone  back ;  whatever  we  settled 
David  and  I  could  not  have  parted.  Though  that 
is  just  cowardice.  It  is  that  I  hate  having  the 
choice  when  I  am  so  perfectly  certain  which  I 
ought  to  do.  David  says  the  money  he  would  get 
for  the  estate  would  make  as  much  difference  to  the 
poor  as  a  parcel  of  dressings  in  a  battle,  but  I  think 
that  is  the  weakest  possible  argument,  that  because 
one  person  can't  do  much  no  one  is  to  do  anything  ; 
everyone  has  to  go  as  far  as  they  can  see  and  nothing 
less  is  enough.  He  says  the  money  is  more  useful 
where  it  is,  in  teaching  people  to  make  the  best  out 

152 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  153 

of  the  land.  I  asked  If  we  couldn't  at  least  sell  the 
big  house  and  live  in  a  cottage  or  perhaps  use  the 
house  as  a  convalescent  home  for  mothers  and 
children  ;  but  he  says,  No.  It  is  full  of  lovely 
things,  hundreds  of  years  old,  that  belonged  to 
his  family  and  that  he  has  the  right  to  enjoy  as 
much  as  if  he  had  bought  them  himself.  He  says 
that  if  Mr.  Price  bought  them,  as  he  would  like  to 
do,  he  wouldn't  either  give  them  away  or  sell 
them  directly.  He  doesn't  care  about  them,  but 
he  would  keep  them  out  of  vanity  and  hand  them  on 
to  Joseph,  who  would  probably  sell  them  to  the 
Jews  and  they  would  be  lost  all  over  the  world. 
I  said,  wasn't  that  a  good  thing,  as  then  so  many 
people  could  each  have  a  little  bit  and  enjoy  it, 
but  he  said  there  was  no  sense  in  that ;  they  looked 
much  better  .all  together  where  they  were.  Of 
course  you  and  I  have  never  had  a  family  tree,  so 
I  don't  suppose  we  understand  any  more  than 
Mrs.  Potter  does — though,  if  you  come  to  think  of 
it,  whenever  she  puts  that  absurd  old  tea  caddy 
of  hers  up  the  spout  she  always  gets  it  out  again 
because  it  was  her  grandmother's.  But  Mother 
found  out  about  David  and  she  goes  on  talking 
very  gently  and  persistently,  and  tells  me  I  am  only 
a  little  girl  and  can't  possibly  think  out  things 
that  even  the  greatest  men  don't  agree  about,  and 
she  doesn't  see  that  that  is  not  the  point.  I  have 
to  follow  what  my  bones  say  is  the  only  decent 
thing  to  do.  She  does  get  on  my  nerves  so,  and 
I  know  you  won't  argue  if  I  ask  you  not.  I  believe 
I  shall  get  some  support  out  of  Evan,  as  he  does 
so  believe  in  anything  uncomfortable,  doesn't  he  ? 
And  this  is  so  uncomfortable  I  am  nearly  mad." 


154  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Evangeline  had  written  at  once,  offering  all  the 
welcome  and  freedom  Teresa  could  want,  and  Evan 
received  her  with  affection.  He  liked  her  thor- 
oughly. She  found  an  atmosphere  of  tension  and 
sadness  in  the  house  that  she  had  not  expected, 
neither  could  she  see  how  it  came  there,  for  Evan- 
geline seemed  on  good  terms  with  her  husband, 
and  Ivor  was  well  and  in  the  highest  spirits  ;  except 
when  his  father  came  into  the  nursery,  which  was 
not  very  often.  Then  the  nurse  grew  troubled  and 
fidgeted  the  child  and  he  became  exacting  and 
contentious,  speaking  rudely  to  her,  which  was 
quite  unusual  with  him.  One  day  Teresa  and 
Evangeline  were  there  playing  with  him  in  perfect 
peace,  when  Evan  came  in.  It  was  about  half- 
past  three  on  a  foggy  November  afternoon.  "  Why 
isn't  that  boy  out  ?  "  he  asked  his  wife. 

"  He  has  been  out,"  she  answered,  "  but  Nurse 
brought  him  in  as  it  is  so  foggy  and  he  has  had  a 
cold." 

"  We  were  always  turned  out  in  all  weathers  up 
in  Yorkshire,  and  it  never  did  us  any  harm,"  said 
Evan. 

"  Let's  turn  that  gun  further  round  this  way, 
Ivor,"  said  Evangeline,  going  on  with  the  game. 
"  You  see  it  would  be  firing  right  into  its  own 
trenches ;  try  a  shot  and  you  will  see."  Evan 
looked  on. 

"  Here,  old  man,  I'll  show  you,"  he  said,  and  he 
took  hold  of  the  gun. 

"  No,  don't  1  "  shouted  Ivor  in  great  excitement. 
"  Put  it  down  !  I've  put  it  there  mythelf." 

"  Yes,  but  you  haven't  done  it  properly,"  his 
father  said,  beginning  to  move  it. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  155 

"  Leave  it,  I  thay,"  Ivor  screamed,  almost  beside 

himself.  "  Get  out  from  my  gunth "  He 

pushed  his  father  away  impatiently.  "  And  you 
get  out  too,"  he  commanded  Evangeline,  pushing 
her  also,  suddenly  tired  of  visitors.  "  All  go  away 
downthtairth."  Tears  of  aggravation  were  in  his 
eyes,  but  he  kept  them  back. 

"  You  are  not  to  speak  to  your  mother  like  that, 
sir,"  said  Evan.  "  Apologise  to  her  at  once."  Ivor 
had  no  idea  what  apologising  meant,  but  it  sounded 
horrid.  "  Than't,"  he  said. 

"  Oh,  do  go  away,  please,  Evan,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  We're  coming  down  to  tea  presently.  Do  go  and 
ring  for  it." 

"  Not  till  that  boy  has  apologised  for  his  rude- 
ness," said  Evan.  Ivor  had  resumed  his  game 
alone  and  was  getting  interested  and  remote. 
Evidently  this  tiresome  family  of  his  were  going  to 
fight  among  themselves  and  leave  him  in  peace. 

"  You  are  sorry,  aren't  you  ?  "  his  mother  said, 
then  in  a  pleading  tone  :  "  You  didn't  mean  to 
push,  did  you  ?  " 

"  Eth,"  said  Ivor,  as  he  place  the  contested  gun 
carefully  back  in  the  position  from  which  his  father 
had  moved  it. 

"  Nonsense,"  said  Evangeline  temptingly.  "  Come 
here  and  kiss  me  and  make  it  up." 

"  Take — away — your — 'uthband,"  Ivor  said 
slowly,  as  if  he  were  repeating  a  lesson  to  himself. 
His  mother  and  his  aunt  shouted  with  delight  and 
could  hardly  believe  that  the  child  had  meant  it. 
Ivor's  face  was  quite  unmoved.  "  Come  on,"  said 
Evangeline,  seizing  Evan  by  the  arm  and  dragging 
him  out  of  the  room.  "  You  can't  stay  after  that." 


156  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

But  he  neither  smiled  nor  answered.  He  followed 
them  downstairs  and  did  not  speak  for  some  time. 

When  he  had  gone  out  again  after  tea  Evangeline 
sat  for  a  time  looking  idly  into  the  fire.  "  Dicky," 
she  began  after  a  little  while,  "  whatever  you  do 
don't  marry  a  man  with  whom  you  daren't  be  truth- 
ful. Before  I  talk  to  Evan  I  have  to  treat  what  I 
want  to  say  as  if  it  were  to  a  foreigner  and  had  to 
be  translated  into  his  language.  First  I  have  to 
cut  out  the  bits  that  won't  do  because  of  the  pre- 
judices he  was  brought  up  in.  Then  I  have  to 
change  whole  chunks  that  he  would  associate  with 
other  women  whom  he  dislikes  and  who  have  said 
the  same  things  ;  we  do,  as  a  sex,  rather  talk  about 
the  same  things  as  each  other,  don't  we  ?  But 
when  he  has  heard  some  gas-bag  of  a  creature  say, 
'  Oh,  Captain  Hatton,  I  do  love  children  ! '  (which  she 
probably  does)  he  thinks  the  whole  subject  ex- 
hausted, and  shamefully  exhausted  too  !  So  if  any 
woman  uses  the  word  '  love  '  at  any  time  afterwards 
he  looks  the  subject  up  in  his  mind  and  finds  a  note, 
'  memo.  gas.  Mrs.  T.'  and  there's  an  end  of  it ;  so 
in  future,  when  I  want  to  say  anything  about  love 
I  have  to  use  another  word.  It  is  very  hampering." 

"  But  you  can't  go  on  using  new  words  about 
everything,"  said  Teresa. 

"  No,  but  you  see  in  the  kind  of  things  he  talks  to 
men  about  the  words  can't  very  well  be  misused. 
If  you  are  describing  what  has  gone  wrong  with 
an  engine  you  can  only  use  words  like  '  plug  '  and 
'  spring  '  and  '  valve,'  that  have  only  one  meaning. 
Even  a  lawyer  couldn't  say,  '  I  suggest  that  when 
you  tell  the  Court  that  the  valve  was  defective  you 
inferred  that  John  Brown's  baby  had  a  wart  on  its 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  157 

nose.'  But  that  is  what  Evan  does  if  I  try  to  tell 
him  what  Ivor  is  thinking — things  that  I  know 
quite  well  because  I  remember  being  a  child,  and 
he  doesn't." 

"  Yes,  I  see,"  said  Teresa. 

"  Well,  let  us  get  on  to  David,"  said  her  sister. 
"  Does  what  I  have  said  apply  to  him  or  not  ?  " 

"  No,  not  at  all,"  (very  emphatically). 

"  Then  why  doesn't  he  do  what  you  want  ?  " 

"  Not  because  he  doesn't  understand,  but  because 
he  doesn't  agree.  It  is  rather  like  statistics  ;  two 
people  can  add  up  the  same  figures  and  prove 
different  results  with  them,  one  showing  that  trade 
is  prospering  and  the  other  that  it  is  going  all  wrong." 

"  You  know,  I  agree  with  him,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  I  don't  think  you  could  do  any  good  by  selling 
everything.  There  is  nothing  you  can  give  to  people 
to  make  them  happy  if  they  don't  want  to  be.  I 
have  found  that  out." 

"  But  the  people  I  am  talking  about  do  want  to 
be  happy,"  Teresa  argued  passionately.  "  They 
are  starving  for  what  other  people  are  throwing 
away  because  they  can't  use  all  of  it." 

"  I  saw  in  the  paper  the  other  day  that  if  you 
divided  up  everyone's  money  there  would  be  only 
thirteen-and-something  a  day — or  a  week — or  it 
might  have  been  a  year — I  forget ;  but  only  a  very 
little  like  that  for  each  person." 

"  It  wasn't  finance  that  I  was  thinking  of,"  said 
Teresa,  "  I  know  it  is  no  good  trying  to  settle  that. 
There  is  a  horrid  boy  at  the  University  called  Fisk. 
He  is  always  telling  me  that  I  haven't  studied  the 
subject,  and  he  is  going  quite  mad  himself  over  it. 
He  devours  Mr.  Cranston's  literature  and  coughs 


158  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

it  up  again  much  the  worse  for  wear.  Joseph  Price 
ran  over  him  once,  ages  ago,  and  brought  him  back 
to  their  house  in  the  middle  of  a  tea-party.  Mother 
was  there,  and  David  told  me  all  about  it  afterwards. 
Of  course  Mother  told  us  nothing  except  that  Mrs. 
Price  got  frightened  at  Fisk  talking  so  much  about 
blood,  as  he  always  does  when  he  is  excited,  and 
that  she  had  said  that  he  couldn't  possibly  be  a 
Communist,  because  some  of  her  own  relations  were  ; 
wasn't  that  like  her  ?  You  know  they  were  all 
very  rich,  so  I  have  wondered  since  how  they  did 
mean  to  divide  up  their  money.  But  whichever  way 
it  was  they  don't  seem  to  have  done  it.  Fisk  stayed 
in  the  Prices'  house  for  two  days,  and  at  last  Mrs. 
Price  sent  for  Emma,  as  he  seemed  to  have  settled 
down  there  very  comfortably  and  said  he  was  too 
ill  to  move.  I  think  Joseph  encouraged  him 
because  he  thought  it  was  the  kind  of  thing  his  dear 
Mortons,  whom  he  imitates,  would  do ;  keep  a 
revolutionary  in  bed  in  their  own  house  and  egg 
him  on  and  feed  him  up  and  get  lots  of  notoriety 
out  of  him  and  then  manage  to  get  out  of  any  trouble 
that  they  raised  later  on.  David  says  if  there  were 
a  revolution  the  Mortons  would  probably  pretend 
to  head  it  and  then  slip  off  to  another  country  where 
it  is  all  comfortable  under  a  despot." 

"  What  does  Father  say  ?  "  Evangeline  asked 
curiously. 

"  I  haven't  told  him  about  David,"  Teresa  replied. 

"  Why  not  ?  He  always  understands,  and  if,  as 
you  say,  Mother  knows,  she  is  sure  to  have  told  him." 

"No,  there  are  some  things  he  doesn't  see  at  all, 
and  one  of  them  is  slums.  They  don't  worry  him 
an  atom  unless  he  has  to  walk  through  them,  and 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  159 

if  he  does  that  he  complains  that  everyone  wears 
fish  next  the  skin,  and  wants  to  go  home  another 
way.  He  never  will  take  the  trouble  to  think  about 
anything  horrid  that  he  can't  help.  I  asked  him 
once  what  he  would  do  if  he  had  to  live  in  a  place 
like  that — we  were  in  some  horrible  street  near  the 
docks — and  he  said  that  it  was  impossible  that  he 
should  have  to,  because  then  he  would  be  somebody 
else  ;  he  explained  that  he  would  have  been  given 
gin  in  his  bottle  as  a  baby,  and  therefore  would  have 
grown  up  quite  contented  with  it  all.  Of  course 
he  would  side  with  David  if  I  told  him.  The  idea 
of  Mr.  Price  having  anything  to  do  with  hounds 
would  prevent  him  from  listening  to  arguments 
even  from  an  archangel." 

If  Teresa  had  but  known,  her  parents  were  at  that 
very  moment  discussing  the  same  subject.  It  was 
after  dinner,  and  Susie  had  mentioned  that  she  met 
Lady  Varens  that  afternoon  opening  a  bazaar. 
"  They  are  going  to  let  Aldwych  to  the  Prices  for 
three  years,"  she  said.  "  David  refuses  to  sell  it, 
but  he  has  suddenly  come  round  to  the  idea  of 
letting  it.  I  suppose  the  Prices  hope  to  be  able  to 
buy  it  in  the  end." 

"  Well,  I'm  damned  sorry,"  he  said  with  a  sigh. 

"  I  am  afraid  it  is  partly  Dicky's  fault,  Cyril," 
she  suggested  gently. 

"  How's  that  ?  "  he  asked.  "  You  haven't  sold 
her  to  that  young  Price,  have  you,  Sue  ?  I  couldn't 
stand  that." 

"  I  wonder  if  you  will  ever  understand  that 
marriage  is  not  a  question  of  bargaining  and  arrange- 
ment," said  his  wife  impatiently.  "It  is  really 
a  pity,  I  think,  that  I  wasn't  able  to  provide  you 


160  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

with  cattle  instead  of  children.  You  would  have 
understood  me  far  better  if  I  had  been  a  slave  or  an 
animal." 

"  We  might  try,"  he  suggested.  "  It  is  not  too 
late  to  add  to  your  list  of  female  impersonations. 
But  you  haven't  answered  my  question." 

"  I  forget  what  it  was,"  she  answered  gravely. 

"  Whether  you  had  bestowed  (we  will  say  if  you 
prefer  it)  Teresa  on  Joseph  Price." 

"  I  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  has  asked 
her  to  marry  him,"  said  Susie. 

"  Then  we  may  take  it  that  is  all  right,"  he  said 
with  relief.  "  She  would  never  invite  herself.  I 
am  always  glad  to  see  Mammon  spread  his  net  in 
vain  for  your  sex,  Sue.  It  makes  the  world  so 
much  brighter  and  better.  But  what  did  you  mean 
that  Dicky  had  done  ?  " 

"  She  has  refused  David  ;   why  I  don't  know." 

"  I  am  really  sorry  about  that,"  he  said  after  a 
pause. 

"  I  suppose  you  wouldn't  tell  her  so,  would  you  ?  " 
she  asked  hopefully. 

"  Of  course  not.  If  marriage  means  as  much  to  a 
girl  as  you  say  it  does,  she  isn't  likely  to  invest  in  a 
husband  to  amuse  dear  old  Dad." 

"  No,  but  you  might  tell  her.     Girls  are  so  silly." 

"  Well,  you  astonish  me  !  "  said  Cyril. 

"  Why  ?     Surely  you  must  know  they  are." 

"  I  thought  the  feminine  instinct  was  infallible 
on  every  subject." 

"  She  can't  be  expected  to  have  experience," 
said  Susie. 

"  Then  the  divine  gift  is  just  a  happy  little  flame 
that  you  can  blow  out  when  you  don't  want  to  see 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  161 

it,  is  that  it  ?  You  can  just  ask  Mother  what  she 
saw  when  she  was  a  girl  ?  And  that  was  a  devil  of 
a  lot,"  he  added  reflectively. 

"  Then  it  is  no  good  asking  you  to  take  the  matter 
seriously  ?  "  she  inquired. 

"  She  is  not  going  to  stay  away  long,  is  she  ?  " 
Cyril  asked. 

"  I  shouldn't  think  so.  I  believe  Evan's  sisters 
are  going  to  stay  there  next  week." 

"  Well,  absence  makes  the  heart  grow  fonder,"  he 
observed.  "  I  am  very  sorry  about  Dicky.  I  don't 
think  you  made  a  great  success  there,  Sue." 

"  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  she  protested.  "  I 
implored  her  to  wait.  If  anything  it  was  your  fault 
for  having  Evan  always  about  here." 

"  Now  how  could  I  help  that  ?  '  Cyril  inquired. 
"  I  couldn't  have  a  maiden  lady  as  my  A.D.C.,  and 
if  I  had,  you  would  have  said  that  I  taught  her  to 
be  wicked.  As  it  was,  I  just  tried  not  to  worry." 

"  Is  there  anything  else  I  can  say  for  you  to  twist 
round,  Cyril  dear  ?  "  asked  his  wife.  "  I  am 
delighted  to  give  you  opportunities  for  your  wit, 
but  sometimes  it  is  hardly  possible  to  open  one's 
mouth." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  said  penitently.  "  I  don't 
want  to  tease  you,  really.  I  love  everything  you 
say.  But  when  you  blamed  me  for  not  keeping 
Hatton  in  a  cupboard  like  a  bottle  of  whisky  labelled 
'  not  to  be  taken,'  I  thought  you  were  coming  it  a 
little  strong." 

"  They  don't  seem  to  me  to  be  very  happy,"  said 
Susie,  prepared  to  start  again  amicably.  "  I  wish 
he  wouldn't  carry  religion  quite  so  far." 

"  How  far  does  he  carry  it  ?  "  asked  Cyril,    "  You 


162  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

see,  he  never  had  occasion  to  bring  it  to  me  at  all, 
so  I  don't  know." 

"  Oh  quite  ridiculous  lengths,"  Susie  replied. 
"  He  thinks  quite  a  number  of  things  wrong." 

"  Ha  !  ha  !  ha  !  "  laughed  Cyril  uproariously. 
"  Well  done,  Sue.  That's  a  topper  !  Ha  !  ha  !  " 

"  My  dear  Cyril,  what  on  earth  is  the  matter  ?  " 
she  asked,  quite  bewildered. 

"  Nothing,"  he  replied  gravely,  as  he  poured 
himself  out  his  usual  evening  drink.  "  My  mind 
wanders  sometimes.  Go  on,  my  dear.  Evan  is 
suffering  from  moral  unrest,  you  say  ?  " 

"  Yes,  he  used  even  to  think  it  wrong  sometimes 
when  I  had  dear  Baby  in  my  room  and  played  with 
him.  I  think  it  is  dreadful  not  to  want  to  see  a 
little  child  happy." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  would  trust  you  to  bring  up  a 
boy,  Sue,"  he  said  candidly.  "  You  see,  your  idea 
of  a  male  is  to  let  it  have  ah1  it  wants  so  long  as  it  is 
only  a  matter  of  a  little  song  and  dance.  But  when 
it  begins  to  want  things  a  bit  nearer  the  bone,  you 
pull  it  up  short  and  it  gets  confused.  Very  few 
women  know  how  to  go  on  as  they  meant  to 
begin." 

"  I  suppose  you  mean  '  begin  as  they  mean  to  go 
on,'  "  said  Susie,  "  but  you  are  quite  wrong.  Men 
understand  what  women  mean  quite  well  from  the 
beginning." 

"  I  meant  what  I  said,"  Cyril  persisted.  "  Go 
on  as  they  meant  to  begin.  They  meant  to  begin 
with  a  carnival  and  to  end  in  Lent." 

Susie  flushed.  "  I  was  saying  that  I  think  Evan 
is  far  too  strict  with  little  Ivor,"  she  said. 

"  Someone  has  got  to  be  sometime,"  said  Cyril 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  163 

carelessly.     "  It  will  save  the  schoolmaster's  arm 
later." 

"  But  a  baby  !  It  is  so  cruel,"  she  protested. 
"  I  must  say,  Cyril,  to  do  you  justice,  you  never 
interfered  with  the  children." 

"  No,  because  they  were  girls,"  he  replied.  "  And 
anyhow,  I  don't  know  anything  about  kids.  I  don't 
mind  them  but  I  keep  out  of  the  way." 

"  They  were  much  fonder  of  you  than  Ivor  is  of 
his  father." 

"  Don't  let's  be  boastful.  And  you  had  much 
better  leave  those  two  to  manage  their  own  affairs." 

Teresa  came  back  at  the  end  of  the  week  and  saw 
David  once  before  he  went  away.  The  Prices  were 
to  move  into  Aldwych  next  month  and  Lady  Varens 
was  going  abroad  when  David  went  to  the  Argentine 
to  learn  farming. 

He  met  Teresa  when  he  was  leaving  the  University 
one  evening  and  walked  back  with  her.  When  they 
reached  the  house  she  invited  him  in.  "I  know 
Mother  is  out,"  she  said,  "  and  Father  probably  is, 
too,  but  I  want  you  to  come  in.  I  have  one  more 
thing  to  say." 

"  What  is  it  ?"  he  asked  when  they  were  in  the 
drawing-room. 

"  Do  you  think  you  will  certainly  come  back 
when  the  Prices'  three  years  are  up  ?  " 

"  I  shall  see  what  sort  of  a  show  they  run  there. 
If  it  is  all  right  I  might  let  them  have  it  and  I  would 
buy  some  land  somewhere  else." 

"  Where  for  instance  ?  " 

"  Anywhere  where  they  talk  English." 

"  Even  in  the  Colonies  ?  And  what  about  all  the 
things  in  your  house  ?  " 


164  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  I  should  move  them." 

"  And  what  about  the  old  people  on  the  place  ?  " 

"  Easily  move  them  too,  if  they  liked.  If  not, 
leave  them." 

"  Would  many  of  them  want  to  go,  do  you 
think  ?  " 

"  Not  unless  your  friend  Fisk  gets  too  much  of  the 
blood  he  is  after.  Then  they  might." 

"  David,  I  do  loathe  that  Fisk." 

"  Yes,  so  do  I. Teresa  ?  " 

"  It  is  the  Lady  Bountiful  I  can't  do,"  she  said 
very  sadly.  "  There  is  something  in  me  that  sticks 
and  boggles  at  it  as  if  I  were  trying  to  swallow  a 
fish  bone.  If  you  loved  someone  as  much  as  you 
could  and  were  told  you  must  only  flirt  with  them — 
wouldn't  you  feel  you  couldn't  ?  It  would  be  like 
selling  one's  soul  to  the  devil." 

"  No,  I  do  think  that  is  awfully  silly,"  said  David. 
"  You  can't  flirt  with  a  girl  you  love.  You  get  run 
away  with  and  then — well,  you  go  where  it  is  going. 
You  don't  think  about  whether  you  ought  to  stop 
and  pick  mushrooms." 

So  it  seemed.  For  when  Susie  came  back  David 
had  gone,  and  Teresa's  pale  little  face  bore  evidence 
of  having  paid  dearly  for  her  inability  to  (as  she 
thought)  flirt  with  her  love  for  Mrs.  Potter.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  whether  David  carried  his  idea 
of  the  runaway  horse  any  further,  or  comforted  him- 
self with  the  possibility  of  deflecting  the  course  of 
Teresa's  passion  for  regeneration. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

"  I  AM  going  to  Aldwych  to  call  on  the  Prices.  Will 
you  come  with  me,  dear  Dicky  ?  I  wish  you 
would,"  said  Susie. 

Teresa  said  she  would.  Sometime  the  idea  of 
Aldwych  without  David  must  be  recognised  and 
dealt  with.  She  also  wished  her  mother  to  forget 
that  "  a  girl  may  regret  some  day  "  having  refused 
a  beautiful  old  place  in  the  country  and  a  really 
good  husband  "  just  for  an  idea."  Poor  little 
Teresa  supposed  that  any  show  of  reluctance  to  go 
back  to  the  house  might  be  taken  as  evidence  of  a 
weak  spot  in  her  armour.  Neither  she  nor  Evange- 
line  had  ever  known  how  much  of  the  world  their 
mother  detected  from  behind  her  veil  of  misty 
sweetness.  Anything  more  candid  than  her  words 
and  actions  could  hardly  be  imagined,  and  yet 
somehow,  as  Evangeline  had  said,  omelets  were 
mysteriously  made  in  hats,  and  whether  Susie  or 
the  Powers  of  Darkness  made  them  none  of  her 
audience  could  discern.  Cyril  had  his  ideas  on  the 
subject  and  we  have  seen  how  deeply  they  wounded 
her. 

Mrs.  Price  was  found  in  the  garden,  talking  in 
her  best  manner  to  one  of  "  the  county  "  who  had 
called  ;  a  crushing  sort  of  woman  who  made  it 
quite  clear  to  Mrs.  Price  that  she  had  called  in 
obedience  to  the  tradition  that  "  noblesse  oblige." 
She  was  known  as  Mrs.  Archie  Lake,  and  newcomers 

165 


i66  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

were  supposed  to  be  "all  right  "  if  she  called  on 
them.  She  had  conferred  the  stamp  of  recognition 
on  Mrs.  Price  for  several  reasons.  First,  "  out  of 
decency  to  Milly  Varens  "  ;  secondly,  because  the 
Hunt  was  not  in  a  very  flourishing  condition,  and 
Mr.  Price  was  reported  to  be  rich  and  ambitious  ; 
thirdly,  "  just  to  see  what  they  were  like."  Some- 
one had  met  Joseph  Price  and  reported  that  he  was 
quite  possible  and  that  the  girls  would  probably 

have  money  too  in  the  end .  Here  Mrs.  Lake 

let  her  train  of  thought  lose  itself  because  one  does 
not  think  these  things  out  in  so  many  words.  Her 
son  was  rather  a  worry  to  her,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
make  plans  of  that  sort.  The  French  do,  but  we 
don't.  Anyhow  she  called,  and  Susie  and  Teresa 
found  her  there.  Mrs.  Price  was  getting  on  well 
with  her  new  manner.  "  How  charming  of  you  to 
come,  Mrs.  Fulton.  Of  course  you  know  this  part 
of  the  world  well.  And  how  is  the  General  ?  "  She 
did  not  wish  Mrs.  Lake  to  suppose  that  Millport  was 
going  to  be  allowed  to  track  her  down  here,  but  Susie, 
of  course,  was  different.  She  welcomed  her. 

"  Yes,  I  think  we  have  met  somewhere,  haven't 
we  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Lake,  raising  her  eyes  sleepily  to 
Susie.  Mrs.  Price  made  a  mental  note  and  tried  to 
look  a  little  sleepy  too. 

"  I  am  sure  you  are  enjoying  the  country,"  Susie 
said  to  her.  "  Everything  is  looking  so  exquisite 
just  now.  We  want  to  go  away  ourselves  as  soon 
as  we  can,  but  my  husband  finds  it  very  difficult 
to  get  away.  He  doesn't  care  for  the  sea  and  so 
many  of  his  Staff  have  children  that  he  likes  to 
let  them  off  when  the  schools  break  up  and  take  his 
own  holiday  when  the  hunting  begins." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  167 

"  But  isn't  Millport  on  the  sea  somewhere  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Lake.  Mrs.  Price  flushed.  "  We  hardly 
think  of  a  great  port  like  that  as  the  seaside,"  she 
said.  "  Of  course  when  my  husband's  ancestor 
went  there  first  and  practically  built  what  there  was 
it  was  on  the  sea,  but  that  is  so  long  ago  and  every- 
thing is  so  altered  he  would  hardly  recognise  it  if 
he  were  alive.  There  are  very  few  people  nowadays 
who  have  the  courage  of  those  pioneers  who  went 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships  and  opened  up  communica- 
tions with  the  East.  My  husband  cares  so  much 
more  for  sport  and  racing  and  all  that,  that  I  tell  him 
he  is  not  half  proud  enough  of  the  old  family  he 
comes  from.  Something  so  rugged  and  adventurous 
about  the  sea,  isn't  there  ?  " 

"  They  used  to  import  slaves,  didn't  they  ?  " 
Mrs.  Lake  inquired,  looking  quite  vacant.  "  I  wish 
they  would  begin  again  now.  I  am  fed  up  with  the 
search  for  servants,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  but  don't  you  think  that  was  terribly 
wrong  ?  "  said  Susie.  "  I  can't  bear  to  think  of  it. 
I  am  sure  that  most  of  the  labour  troubles  now  are 
largely  owing  to  people  having  been  so  inconsiderate 
for  others  in  the  past.  Teresa  and  I  both  work  a 
great  deal  in  that  way,  and  we  see  so  much  of  it." 

"  Oh,  really  ?  What  sort  of  work  do  you  do  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Lake  of  Teresa. 

"  I  just  sort  papers  in  an  office,"  said  Teresa,  who 
would  have  beaten  her  mother  at  that  moment. 

"  Really  ?  Don't  you  find  you  need  exercise  ?  " 
said  Mrs.  Lake.  "  You  had  better  come  and  do 
some  hunting  in  the  winter.  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  working  classes  don't  need 
helping  any  more  ;  they  help  themselves  to  every- 


i68  THREE  LOVING   LADIES 

thing  they  want.  Do  your  girls  hunt  ?  "  she  turned 
to  Mrs.  Price. 

"  Oh,  they  are  quite  mad  about  it,"  their  mother 
replied.  "  Sir  David  sold  his  horses  before  we 
came.  He  said  he  didn't  understand  that  Mr.  Price 
would  have  bought  any  that  were  good  enough  for 
the  girls,  but  some  others  have  been  ordered,  I 
believe,  and  in  the  meantime  we  have  the  three 
motors  to  get  about  in,  so  we  are  not  really  cut  off." 

Mrs.  Lake  was  startled  almost  out  of  her  good 
behaviour.  She  regretted  for  a  moment  having 
called  so  soon,  in  case  it  should  really  be  impossible 
to  go  on  with  these  people,  however  rich  they  were. 

"  I  suppose  Sir  David  is  coming  back  in  a  year  or 
two  ?  "  she  said,  anxiously. 

"  Well,  that  of  course,  one  can't  say,"  Mrs.  Price 
replied,  "  but  my  husband  would  have  bought  the 
place  if  he  could  and  he  still  hopes  to — if  we  find 
we  can  afford  it,  that  is,"  she  added,  recollecting 
certain  warnings  from  her  daughters.  "  We  had  to 
draw  in  our  horns  very  much  since  the  war,  like 
everybody  else." 

"  Not  quite  everybody,  do  you  think  ?  "  said  Mrs. 
Lake,  as  she  made  room  for  the  butler  and  footman 
who  had  come  in  with  tea.  "  There  are  some  people 
who  have  taken  a  place  called  Fable  near  here — 
perhaps  you  know  them  ?  I  think  they  come  from 
Millport  or  Poolchester,  I  forget  which.  He  con- 
tracted for  something  during  the  war,  boots  or 
cholera  belts  or  cigarettes  or  something,  and  not 
only  that,  but  the  price  of  whatever  it  was  is  still 
up.  It  is  rather  sad  to  see  the  old  places  go,  one 
by  one." 

"  I  expect  they  come  from  Poolchester,"  said  Mrs. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  169 

Price.  "  There  is  a  great  deal  of  that  sort  of  thing 
there.  It  is  a  manufacturing  town  of  course." 

"  But  such  an  interesting  place,"  Susie  intervened. 
"  So  much  life.  I  went  there  once  to  hear  some 
wonderful  music,  and  the  faces  all  looked  to  me  so 
strong.  No,  no  sugar,  thanks, — Teresa,  dear,  will 
you  take  that  cup  from  Mrs.  Price  ?  " 

Joseph  came  in  just  then  and  Mrs.  Lake  dropped 
all  unpleasant  subjects  immediately.  She  en- 
couraged him  and  he  responded  gladly.  He  infused 
a  quality  of  ease  into  the  conversation. 

"  And  how's  the — what  d'you  call  it  ? — the 
welfare  of  the  city,  Miss  Fulton  ?  "  he  asked 
presently.  "  Still  going  strong,  what  ?  Fisk  been 
shedding  much  blood  lately  ?  " 

"  What's  that  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Lake  curiously. 

"  Oh,  great  sport,  isn't  he,  Miss  Fulton  ?  Com- 
munist, what  ?  Miss  Fulton  b'nevolently  hands 
round  soup  and  Fisk  gets  into  it,  isn't  that  it  ?  No, 
kait  sairysly  though.  I  hope  you're  getting  on.  I 
do  immensely  admire  what  you're  doing.  I  couldn't 
do  it  for  m'Hfe.  The  smell  of  the  filers  on  parade 
used  to  quite  upset  me." 

Mrs.  Lake  didn't  like  that.  "  He  must  learn  not 
to  say  those  kind  of  things,"  she  thought.  "  It  is 
dreadfully  bad  form  ;  but  he  is  a  nice  boy  in  many 
ways  ;  we  had  better  make  use  of  him." 

To  Teresa  the  whole  thing  was  little  less  than 
torture.  Love  of  humanity  was  so  alive  in  her  that 
to  have  it  wounded  in  sport  gave  her  something 
of  the  hopeless  misery  of  a  child  roughly  handled  by 
bigger  boys.  The  fact  that  they  were  of  her  own 
species  made  her  sense  of  isolation  worse.  Affec- 
tionate women  fear  alien  sympathies  more  than 


170  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

force.  They  also  feel  it  their  duty  to  betray  the 
whereabouts  of  the  thing  they  love  by  fighting  over 
it,  instead  of  merely  putting  it  out  of  range  of 
attack  and  guarding  all  approaches  as  men  do. 

"  You  would  have  smelt  just  as  bad  yourself  if 
you  had  been  a  private,"  she  said,  blushing  and 
stammering,  "it  is  only  just  chance  that  gives  you 
hot  baths." 

"  Ha  !  ha  !  "  he  laughed  heartily.  "  Of  course  I 
should.  You're  abs'lutely  right ;  but  then  I 
shouldn't  have  minded,  don't  you  see  ?  That's 
th'  whole  point." 

"  How  do  you  know  you  wouldn't  ?  "  she  flamed 
out.  "  How  do  you  know  they  don't  care  ?  They 
do  care.  You  know  nothing  about  it.  You  have 
never  talked  to  them." 

"  Teresa,  dear,"  Susie  remonstrated. 

"  No,  no,  please,"  said  Joseph.  "  Come  on,  Miss 
Fulton,  we  must  finish  this.  I'm  enjoying  it 
'mmensely.  I  love  people  that  speak  out.  I " 

"  Oh,  do  leave  it  alone,"  said  Teresa.  "  You  don't 
understand  a  bit." 

"  Yes,  I  do,"  he  persisted.  "  I'm  'normously 
int'rested  in  th'  whole  subject.  I  shall  b'  sure  to 
have  to  canvass  for  my  father  at  the  next  election 
and  what  you  were  saying  is  just  th'  sort  of  thing 
th'  Labour  people  will  put  up,  and  I  shall  have  t'  find 
an  answer.  And  there  isn't  any  answer,  you  know, 
except  that  somebody's  got  t'  have  money — there 
isn't  'nough  in  th'  country  for  everybody — and 
mining  and  all  that  takes  generations  of  training. 
Somebody's  got  to  do  it,  and  somebody's  got  t'  stay 
outside  and  watch  them  when  they  come  up.  Th' 
question  is,  Who  ?  Fisk  thinks  he  ought  t'  have  a 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  171 

turn  because  he  never  has.  I  think  I'm  going  to 
because  I've  got  int'  the  habit  of  it.  There's  nothing 
in  it  as  an  argument,  you  see.  The  only  way  is  t' 
sit  tight.  The  thing's  bound  t'  settle  itself  in 
time." 

"  And  what  is  your  father's  view  as  a  Member  of 
Parliament  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Lake,  who  was  a  good 
deal  bewildered,  a  little  shocked  and  a  very  little 
amused. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Joseph,  "  he  doesn't  say, 
but  I  don't  think  he  stands  much  nonsense  from  the 
filers  down  at  the  works.  But  he  keeps  friends  with 
the  Labour  Party,  I  b'lieve  on  principle.  The 
government  offered  him  a  baronetcy  last  year,  but 
that  sort  of  thing  isn't  done  now,  thank  goodness. 
He  said  he'd  be  a  fool  t'  take  it,  I  remember,  but  I 
forget  why." 

"  How  can  you  pretend  to  be  so  silly,  Joseph," 
his  mother  interrupted.  "  You  know  your  father 
doesn't  believe  in  rewards  for  public  service  of  that 
sort.  No  one  can  ever  say  he  has  pushed  himself 
forward." 

"  No,  my  dear  mother,  that's  just  what  I  said," 
he  remarked.  "  It's  such  frightf'lly  bad  form  t' 
have  titles  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  now.  The 
Tories  stick  to  it  on  principle,  of  course,  but  they're 

frightf'lly  crude  in  their  ideas "  He  was 

wandering  on  gaily  as  a  matter  of  habit,  relating 
as  much  as  he  could  remember  of  what  he  heard  at 
the  houses  he  loved,  when  Mrs.  Archie  Lake  rose. 

"  Don't  talk  too  much  about  crude  Conservatives 
while  you  are  at  Aldwych,  Mr.  Price,"  she  said. 
"  We  don't  study  politics  down  here  ;  we  just  have 
them,  and  we  are  not  likely  to  change.  You  had 


172  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

better  come  and  play  tennis  with  us  next  week, 
and  leave  abstruse  problems  alone." 

Evangeline  had  taken  a  small  house  by  the  sea 
for  July  and  August.  She  intended  to  be  there  alone 
with  Ivor  and  his  nurse,  except  for  such  time  as 
she  could  persuade  Teresa  to  spend  with  her.  Evan 
would  come  down  for  week  ends,  and  perhaps  a 
whole  ten  days  at  the  end  of  the  time.  She  was 
beginning  to  lose  those  sociable  tastes  that  had 
made  her  so  popular  when  she  came  to  Drage. 
Her  joy  in  living  that  had  made  her  easily  throw 
off  the  weight  of  other  people's  theories  of 
conduct  was  giving  way  under  continuous  fatigue. 
Her  war  against  Evan's  prejudices  had  broken  out 
again. 

This  reassembling  of  his  forces  and  hers  might 
have  been  prophesied  without  much  risk  from  the 
beginning,  but  the  prophet  would  have  been  called 
cynical  and  pessimistic  by  all  those  genial  souls  who 
believe  that  the  best  way  to  prevent  war  is  to  invite 
the  hostile  parties  to  a  picnic.  They  fondly  suppose 
that  because  the  guns  are  left  at  home  there  will  be 
no  fighting.  Even  when  they  look  round  and  dis- 
cover that  half  the  party  are  drawn  up  on  one  side 
of  the  tablecloth  with  all  the  teapots  and  the  other 
half  are  massed  with  all  the  buns  on  the  other, — 
even  then  they  would  consider  it  morbid  to  suspect 
them  of  harbouring  old  grudges.  It  may  be  re- 
membered that  before  Evan  asked  Evangeline  to 
marry  him  he  had  reviewed  and  finally  dismissed 
the  remnant  of  his  doubts  about  the  soundness  of 
her  character.  His  inner  voices  warned  him,  "  She 
is  not  your  ideal  woman  ;  she  is  lax  and  flippant  and 
light-headed,"  but  Nature  laughed  at  and  tormented 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  173 

him.  No  one  knows  how  Nature  does  this  work  of 
uniting  opposite  temperaments,  but  she  did  it,  and 
Evan's  misgivings  retired  muttering. 

By  the  time  we  are  now  speaking  of  they  had 
gathered  again  in  a  strong  force.  Evangeline's 
gaiety  and  confidence  and  innocence  with  which  she 
had  routed  them  were  now  weakened  by  constant  un- 
expected attacks.  The  anxiety  of  never  knowing  from 
what  quarter  disapproval  would  burst  out  and  turn 
pleasure  into  pain  made  her  nervous  and  depressed. 
As  Ivor  grew  older  the  strain  was  more  than 
doubled,  for  in  every  attack  of  Evan's  that  she  could 
have  dodged  or  parried  for  herself  she  was  hampered 
by  Ivor's  little  body,  that  would  suffer  equally  from 
her  blows  at  her  husband  and  her  husband's  at  her. 
She  dared  not  hide  away  with  him,  because  that 
would  at  once  bring  about  the  crisis  she  dreaded, 
and  Evan  would  claim  his  right  to  take  the  boy  away. 
There  was  nowhere  she  could  hide  him  where  he 
would  not  be  found  by  the  police  and  given  back 
to  his  father.  She  sat  sometimes  on  a  gate  among 
fields  that  overlooked  the  railway  line,  and  watched 
with  frightened  eyes  the  trains  rush  by  and  wondered 
whether  any  of  them  went  far  enough  without  a 
stop  to  take  her  and  the  child  out  of  Evan's  reach. 
She  thought  longingly  of  other  countries,  stretches 
of  hill  and  forest,  new  faces,  new  people ;  English- 
speaking  they  must  be  for  Evangeline,  but  there 
are  plenty  of  these  everywhere,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe.  She  thought  once  what  fun  it  would  be 
to  walk  about  in  bright  sunshine,  knowing  that 
Evan  was  asleep  in  darkness  and  fog  just  below  the 
curve  of  the  round  world.  Only  there,  on  the  other 
side,  would  she  feel  safe ;  he  would  never  come 


174  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

slowly  up  like  a  fly  over  an  orange  (as  she  was 
taught  at  school  when  the  hemispheres  were  ex- 
plained) and  look  for  her.  No,  she  knew  he  would 
not.  He  would  search  over  England,  and  possibly 
Europe,  but  if  the  police  still  failed  in  their  clues  he 
would  go  home  at  last  and  explain  to  Cyril,  and 
retire  into  a  blacker  severity  than  ever  with  his 
giggly  little  sisters.  Then  she  used  to  shake  herself 
free  from  these  dreams  and  return  home  tired  and 
sad.  She  had  looked  forward  eagerly  to  being  by 
the  sea  with  Teresa  and  Ivor,  and  when  they  were 
all  there  at  last,  some  of  her  old  confidence  came 
back. 

She  said  nothing  to  Teresa  about  the  trouble  in 
her  mind,  because  it  had  increased  beyond  the  stage 
of  being  an  interesting  puzzle  and  become  grief 
that  lies  quieter  untouched,  except  by  the  one  who 
brought  it  and  only  could  remove  it.  One  great 
difference  between  Evangeline  and  her  mother  was 
that  Susie  counted  differences  of  opinion  with  her- 
self as  a  compliment  to  her  higher  understanding  ; 
they  were  treasures  to  be  turned  over  and  enjoyed 
in  secret.  To  her  daughter  they  were  so  many 
obstructions  to  love,  and  must  be  destroyed  if 
possible ;  if  persistently  obstructive,  she  climbed 
over  and  fled  from  them. 

Ivor  had  certainly  managed  to  collect  in  himself 
all  the  elements  of  discord  in  his  father's  and  mother's 
families.  If  he  had  inherited  his  mother's  joyousness 
and  been  content  with  that,  the  two  of  them  together 
might  have  weakened  Evan's  fears  through  lack  of 
exercise,  for  his  disapproval  was  not  the  natural 
bitterness  that  uses  a  creed  as  the  organ  of  its 
appetite  ;  it  was  his  means  of  following  the  same 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  175 

desire  as  Evangeline  followed,  the  desire  to  know 
how  God  works  the  universe.  She  felt  that  she 
knew  how  it  was  done  and  he  thought  he  knew. 
But  feeling  is  generally  stronger  than  thought  in 
personal  affairs,  so  if  the  wretched  young  Ivor  had 
left  well  alone  and  not  excited  his  father's  reasoning 
powers,  they  might  have  grown  soft  like  the  Roman 
Legions.  But  unfortunately  he  had  inherited  a 
great  deal  of  Susie's  mischievous  tendency  to  stir 
up  strife  without  taking  part  in  it.  He  had  her 
elusive  charm  and  was,  like  her,  uncommunicative  ; 
he  loved  natural  pleasure  and  was  indifferent  to 
public  opinion,  like  his  mother,  and  was  as  unswerv- 
ing along  his  own  chosen  path  as  his  father.  This 
combination  of  qualities  made  him  perfectly  adapted 
as  a  bone  of  contention,  a  desirable  young  person, 
belonging  to  both,  and  yet  to  neither  of  the  contend- 
ing parties.  There,  down  by  the  sea  with  his  devoted 
mother  and  aunt  and  nurse,  he  played  and  bathed 
and  went  his  own  way  in  peace,  asking  nothing 
that  was  unreasonable,  kind-hearted,  courageous 
and  merry  ;  the  kind  of  child  that  terrifies  its  weaker 
relatives  by  the  thought  of  what  it  has  to  meet  in 
the  future  ;  of  candid  eyes  coming  upon  hatred 
for  the  first  time,  small  hands  roughened  by  work 
and  stained  with  blood  from  the  noses  of  hostile 
neighbours  with  predatory  instincts  and  a  perverted 
sense  of  humour  ;  visions  perhaps,  of  little  trousers 
that  were  designed  for  warmth  and  comfort  removed 
with  trembling  fingers  at  the  command  of  an  ogre 
with  a  cane  in  a  place  far  from  home — a  callous 
creature  with  lips  dripping  the  literature  of  a  civilisa- 
tion that  worshipped  suffering.  There  is  a  radical 
difference  between  mothers  who  revere  the  name  of 


176  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Caesar  and  mothers  who  don't.  It  is  not  all 
children  who  work  upon  maternal  terrors  in  this 
way,  but  Ivor  had  the  gift  to  perfection  and  his 
unconsciousness  of  his  own  power  made  it  the 
stronger. 

The  little  party  were  playing  on  the  sands  one 
day,  when  two  figures,  one  in  a  linen  dress  with  a 
red  parasol,  the  other  in  baggy  tweeds,  came  to  the 
edge  of  the  cliff  above  them  and  sat  down.  Evange- 
line  heard  a  small  laugh  with  a  familiar  tone  in  it, 
and  looked  up.  "  Hullo,  Dicky,"  she  said,  "  there 
are  the  Vachells  ;  look  !  "  Mrs.  Vachell  waved 
her  hand  and  then  said  something,  and  presently 
both  figures  rose  and  came  slowly  down  the  sand- 
hills, Mrs.  Vachell  with  leisurely  ease,  her  husband 
with  the  reluctance  of  a  shy  man  obeying  the 
stronger  will  of  a  wife  used  to  society. 

"  I  had  no  idea  you  were  here,"  she  said.  "  Did 
I  tell  you  of  the  place  by  any  chance  ?  There  are  so 
few  people  here  generally.  You  know  my  husband, 
don't  you  ?  "  Mr.  Vachell  bowed.  "  But  you 
two  don't  count  as  people,"  she  added.  "  I  don't 
grudge  you  your  simple  pleasures.  If  you  spend 
your  days  like  this  making  sand  pies  you  must  have 
very  peaceful  minds.  What  I  hate  are  people  who 
put  up  tents  and  are  always  making  tea  and  scream- 
ing in  two  inches  of  water." 

"  Your  boy  seems  to  be  having  a  good  time,"  said 
Mr.  Vachell.  Ivor  was  busy  with  a  net  among  the 
small  rocks  that  appeared  at  low  tide. 

"  Yes,  he  loves  it,"  Evangeline  replied.  "  We 
are  so  happy  here."  She  spread  her  rug  hospitably, 
and  they  all  sat  down.  Mr.  Vachell  and  Teresa 
were  side  by  side  in  a  silence  that  each  felt  the  other 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  177 

ought  to  break  first,  but  neither  was  equal  to  the 
attempt. 

"  Is  Captain  Hatton  with  you  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Vachell. 

"  No,  not  often,"  Evangeline  replied.  "  He 
comes  for  week  ends  sometimes. 

"  Your  boy  looks  very  well,"  Mr.  Vachell 
remarked. 

"  Yes,  he  is,  and  he  is  really  no  trouble,"  said  his 
mother.  "  There  are  some  other  children  about, 
but  he  doesn't  seem  to  want  them.  He  is  the  most 
independent  creature  I  ever  met." 

"  That  is  a  useful  thing  in  a  boy,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"It  is  useful  in  anybody,"  said  Evangeline, 
sighing.  "  I  think  if  everybone  minded  their  own 
business  like  animals,  and  were  just  happy  eating 
together  and  enjoying  each  other's  society  and 
hopping  off  in  between,  it  would  be  much  nicer." 

Mr.  Vachell's  face  wrinkled  into  a  smile,  but  he 
said  nothing. 

Teresa  happened  to  look  up.  "  What  are  you 
laughing  at  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Your  sister's  idea  of  living  agrees  with  mine," 
he  said.  They  missed  Mrs.  Vachell's  reply,  but 
Evangeline  went  on  thinking  aloud,  incited  by  the 
sunshine  and  the  splash  of  the  waves.  She  had 
once  said  to  Susie,  as  a  child,  that  the  sea  was  always 
telling  her  to  speak  out,  but  that  it  never  said  any- 
thing but  "  h'm  "  when  she  did,  and  Susie  had 
answered,  "  Yes,  dear,  that  is  quite  true."  She  had 
found  the  sea  restful  herself,  when  pursued  by  the 
eager  questioning  of  lovers.  Evangeline  went  on 
now,  "  There  is  too  much  busy-bodying  about 
morals.  I  think  that  people  who  like  committing 


178  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

murder  should  be  put  on  an  island  together  and 
settle  it  among  themselves ;  people  who  steal 
should  have  all  their  things  taken  away  and  sold 
for  hospitals ;  people  who  say  nasty  things  should 
be  given  vinegar  tea  made  with  bilge  water,  and  be 
photographed  every  day  and  obliged  to  look  at  the 
proofs " 

"  What  about  people  who  are  stupid  ?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  Oh,  poor  darlings,  nothing  about  them,"  said 
Evangeline  quickly,  "  don't  be  horrid." 

"  Don't  you  think  most  vice  is  stupidity  ?  " 

"  No,  certainly  not.  For  instance,  I  am  so 
stupid  that  I  don't  know  what  two  and  two  make, 
but  I  don't  mean  an  atom  of  harm." 

"  But  you  may  do  a  lot  of  harm  by  adding  them 
up  to  make  six.  Why  not  try  to  learn  ?  " 

"  I  don't  believe  God  adds  up,"  said  Evangeline, 
tracing  patterns  in  the  sand  with  her  finger.  "  But 
then  I  expect  He  knows  the  answer  without  thinking, 
so  that  doesn't  come  to  anything." 

"  I  don't  know  your  husband,  Mrs.  Hatton,"  said 
Mr.  Vachell,  "  but  I  hope  he  is  not  passionately  fond 
of  arithmetic." 

"  He  has  a  passion  for  everything  uncomfortable," 
said  Evangeline. 

"  Poor  fellow  !  "  observed  Mr.  Vachell. 

"  Mr.  Vachell,  really  I  don't  think  you  need  look 
like  that,"  said  Teresa.  "  Your  study,  which  I 
saw  once,  is  the  most  hauntingly  uncomfortable 
place  I  was  ever  led  into.  I  couldn't  go  to  sleep 
the  night  after  I  had  seen  it." 

"  Why,  what  is  the  matter  with  it  ?  "  he  asked, 
surprised. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  179 

"  Everything  is  so  dug  up,"  she  explained. 
"  Have  you  ever  seen  it,  Chips  ?  "  she  turned  to  her 
sister.  "I  do  think  when  people  have  finished 
with  their  lives  they  might  be  allowed  to  get  rid 
of  them  decently.  To  have  their  bones  and  their 
tears  and  the  things  they  have  been  happy  with 

all  brought  back  and  looked  at .  Suppose 

someone  dug  up  Millport  thousands  of  years  after 
us,  and  put  a  whole  street  full  of  people  together 
again !  Personal  possessions  are  bad  enough  when 
the  people  who  own  them  are  alive ;  they  are  so 
full  of — I  don't  know  what — associations.  But 
when  the  owners  are  dead  their  things  become 
perfectly  horrid.  I  don't  think  anyone  ought  to 
own  anything  at  all.  I  would  like  them  to  li ve  out 
of  doors  in  tents  that  don't  cost  anything,  and  to 
eat  with  their  fingers " 

"  I  am  very  sorry  my  things  worried  you  so 
much,"  said  Mr.  Vachell.  "  I  have  always  looked 
at  them  quite  prosaically  as  history  ;  interesting 
in  their  way.  In  fact,  I  think  I  could  show  you 
that  they  are  interesting  if  you  came  and  looked 
at  them  again.  Some  of  them  are  very  beautiful, 
and  if  people  make  beautiful  things  to  please  them- 
selves they  are  worth  keeping.  The  world  would  be 
very  squalid  by  now  if  it  had  gone  on  as  you  suggest. 
Think  of  the  grass  all  trampled  down  with  being 
sat  upon  and  nobody's  hair  ever  having  been  combed, 
and  how  dreadfully  they  would  all  quarrel  and  gossip 
with  nothing  to  do." 

"  I  expect  I  was  thinking  of  a  world  with  fewer 
people  in  it,"  said  Teresa.  "  It  makes  me  giddy 
,when  I  think  of  arranging  a  government  that  will 
be  fair  to  millions  and  millions  of  people,  each  one 


i8o  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

of  them  just  a  little  different  from  any  one  of  the 
others." 

"  That  is  where  historians  do  their  humble  best 
for  you,"  said  he.  "  It  does  sort  the  masses  into  a 
few  main  heaps  that  tend  to  move  about  in  definite 
directions,  and  even  clear  the  ground  by  destroying 
one  another." 

"  Yes,  that  is  a  man's  only  idea  of  deciding  an 
argument,"  said  his  wife.  "  He  has  never  been  able 
to  understand  anything  more  intelligent  than  blood. 
And  as  long  as  women  are  silly  enough  to  go  on 
providing  children  and  handing  them  over  to  him 
the  supply  will  be  kept  up  and  arguments  will  be 
decided  in  that  way." 

"  I  am  afraid  I  must  go  in  and  do  a  little  work," 
said  he,  rising  with  a  sigh. 

"  Good-bye,"  said  his  wife,  "  I'll  come  along 
later." 

They  sat  talking  until  it  was  time  to  go  in  to  tea. 
Evangeline  began  to  feel  her  contentment  in  the 
outdoor  life  she  loved  give  way  gradually  before 
the  force  of  purpose  that  Mrs.  Vachell  brought 
with  her.  The  Sphinx  who  looked  so  calm  among 
hungry  crowds  had  the  opposite  effect  on  Evange- 
line's  simple  enjoyment  of  things  as  they  are.  The 
smothered  rebellion  that  is  hidden  by  pride  so 
long  as  the  enemy  is  overpowering  may  suddenly 
break  out  and  inflame  a  peaceful  party  of  shepherds 
and  set  them  running  and  shouting  for  an  end  that 
they  never  contemplated  or  desired.  Evangeline 
had  been  suffering  under  a  sense  of  heavy  depression 
when  she  came  away  to  the  sea.  She  felt  herself 
up  against  an  obstacle  that  was  not  to  be  moved 
because  it  moved  with  her  and  encircled  her  from 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  181 

all  sides,  closing  her  in  and  shutting  out  all  the  new 
joys  of  the  future  that  she  had  seen  ahead  of  her 
when  Ivor  was  born.  Every  step  she  took  was 
hampered  by  fear  that  she  might  be  sending  him 
farther  away  from  her,  some  incident  might  arise 
that  would  strengthen  Evan's  conviction  that  she 
was  not  fit  to  have  the  charge  of  him.  Then  when 
she  hid  her  S3^mpathy  from  Ivor  and  forced  herself 
to  suffer  for  the  sake  of  keeping  him  with  her,  she 
could  see  a  look  of  childish  judgment  in  his  eyes  that 
placed  her  unjustly  in  the  category  she  dreaded, 
that  of  people  who  have  grown  up  and  are  beyond 
the  pale  of  confidence  from  the  young.  If  she  went 
on  pretending  for  his  sake,  she  said  to  herself,  he 
would  become  like  Romulus  and  Remus,  living  in 
his  own  thoughts  without  a  mother.  The  idea 
made  her  almost  mad  at  times. 

Alone  with  Teresa  and  Ivor  by  the  sea,  she  had 
got  back  her  confidence,  her  nature  being  of  the 
kind  that  expects  a  trouble  left  behind  to  remain 
where  it  is  without  attempting  pursuit.  She  kept 
no  record  of  the  occasions  when  this  hope  had  been 
disappointed.  The  things  Mrs.  Vachell  talked  of 
that  afternoon  showed  her  something  entirely  new 
to  her.  She  understood,  to  her  great  surprise,  that 
all  over  the  world  were  thousands  of  other  Evange- 
lines,  suffering  as  she  did,  from  the  inexplicable 
harshness  of  men  towards  those  precious,  irrational 
gambollings  of  the  mind,  that  move  women  to 
actions  that  are  condemned  as  "  unreasonable," 
"  inconsistent,"  "  illogical,"  "  false,"  "  silly,"  and 
generally  lacking  in  orderly  sequence.  She  learned 
that  she  was  not  alone,  fighting  something  sinister 
that  had  no  shape  and  perhaps  was  only  a  disorder 


182  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

of  her  own  imagination.  Mrs.  Vachell  explained 
that  the  enemy  was  terribly  real  and  powerful ;  the 
enemy  of  all  true  women  whose  duty  it  was  to  unite 
in  fighting  to  the  last  drop  of  their  blood. 

"  Women  are  not  stupid,"  she  said  in  her  slow, 
deep  voice,  "  they  are  not  irrational.  What  you 
see  in  Ivor  and  dread  to  lose — what  your  husband 
does  not  see — is  what  comes  into  the  world  by 
women,  and  your  husband  thinks  it  foolish  because 
it  is  not  in  him.  He  wants  to  preserve  his  own 
qualities ;  you  want  to  preserve  yours  ;  they  are 
wholly  contradictory,  and  one  side  or  the  other 
must  impose  its  will." 

"  But  I  thought  men  were  supposed  to  adore 
women  for  having  just  what  they  haven't  got,  just 
as  we  adore  them  for  their  physical  strength  and 
their  brains." 

"  So  they  say,  and  so  we  say,  because  otherwise 
there  would  be  no  marriages,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  But  it  is  a  He.  We  only  love  their  strength  for 
the  sake  of  getting  the  better  of  it.  They  cultivate 
our  foolishness  because  it  gives  them  rest  from 
competition,  and  they  can  sit  down  and  plume  them- 
selves. Each  wants  the  power,  and  the  centuries  of 
suffering  that  we  have  gone  through  have  taught  us 
to  see  love  as  the  only  thing  worth  having,  while 
they  still  look  on  it  as  a  pleasant  fad  to  be  indulged 
in  when  they  have  finished  arranging  who  is  to  get 
the  most  of  what  belongs,  by  right,  equally  to 
all.  It  is  all  very  pretty,  you  will  find,  if  you  look 
into  it." 

"  Dicky,"  said  Evangeline,  a  few  days  later,  when 
she  and  Teresa  had  settled  themselves  under  the 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  183 

cliff  after  breakfast,  "  I  have  done  the  most  evil  bit 
of  mischief.  I  feel  like  Guy  Fawkes.  I  have 
advised  Mrs.  Trotter  to  come  here,  and  she  is 
coming." 

"  But  why  not  ?  "  Teresa  asked  in  surprise. 
"  Don't  you  know  how  Evan  hates  her  ?     No,  I 
suppose  you  wouldn't.     But  he  does.     She  is  his 
bete  noir." 

"  But,  then,  why  have  you  asked  her  ?  " 
"  I  didn't  ask  her.  Mother  wrote  and  said  the 
rooms  the  Trotters  generally  go  to  at  Broadstairs 
have  got  something  the  matter  with  them ;  a 
lodger  developed  some  disease  or  other,  I  think. 
They  couldn't  get  in  anywhere,  and  she  wanted  to 
know  if  I  could  get  rooms  here.  There  are  rooms 
in  those  cottages  down  on  the  left  by  the  church, 
nurse  told  me.  So  I  think  she  is  sure  to  come." 

"  But  that  isn't  your  fault,"  said  Teresa.  "  You 
couldn't  do  anything  else.  Evan  hasn't  bought  up 
the  whole  place." 

"  No,  not  if  I  had  done  it  innocently  like  that," 
said  Evangeline,  "  but  I  didn't.  I  urged  her  to 
come  and  made  everything  easy,  and  I  have  been 
enjoying  the  idea  ever  since.  It  is  deliberate  vice. 
There  is  Evan  coming  along  now  with  Mrs.  Vachell, 
of  course.  He  still  thinks  her  a  very  ladylike 
woman.  Oh,  Dicky !  when  Mrs.  Trotter  comes 
won't  she  mow  them  both  down  with  repartee  ?  It 
will  be  lovely." 

"  Chips,"  said  Teresa  hesitatingly,  "  you — you're 

not  so — so  kind  to  Evan  as  you  are  to  the  rest  of  us. 

You  used  to  be  so  interested  in  making  him  talk, 

and  now  you  so  often  won't  listen  when  he  does." 

"  He  talks  such  rot,"  said  her  sister.     "  I  can't 


184  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

be  bothered  with  it."  There  was  silence  for  some 
minutes. 

"  I'm  a  pig,  Dicky,"  said  Evangeline  presently. 
"  But  if  you  knew  how  deadly  it  Is  being  with  some- 
one who  doesn't  understand  the  way  women  look 
at  things " 

"  Don't  talk  about  women  as  if  they  were  all 
alike,"  said  Teresa  impatiently.  "It  is  as  bad  as 
Mrs.  Carpenter.  She  is  always  saying,  '  we  women 
are  so  something  or  other,'  and  Mother  says, 
"  but  then,  don't  you  think  women  are  so  '  some- 
thing else.'  But  they  both  give  you  an  idea  of 
somebody  very  noble  and  forlorn  in  the  position  of 
Daniel  in  the  den  of  lions.  I  am  sure  that  there 
are  certain  qualities  in  people,  courage  and  truth- 
fulness and  meanness  and  greed  and  all  the  rest, 
and  everybody  has  some  of  them  in  different 
mixtures ;  it  doesn't  make  any  difference  whether 
they  are  male  or  female  or  rich  or  poor.  It  is  so 
silly  trying  to  label  people  into  classes  and  species 
according  to  their  incomes  or  their  sex.  Nationality 
divides  them  up  a  little,  I  admit,  but  otherwise  you 
are  just  asking  for  trouble  by  presupposing  any  vice 
or  virtues." 

"  Well,  then,  men  should  stop  presupposing  that 
women  have  no  brains  and  no  morals,"  said  Evange- 
line. 

"  I  don't  believe  that  any  woman  with  either  has 
ever  bothered  what  was  presupposed  about  her,  or 
had  any  difficulty  in  convincing  anyone  to  whom 
it  mattered,"  Teresa  replied. 

"  But  that  is  nonsense,  Dicky.  You  know  it 
was  only  when  women  had  to  be  employed  in  the 
war  that  they  had  a  chance  to  show  what  they 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  185 

could  do.  Look  at  women  doctors  before  they 
began  to  run  their  own  hospitals." 

"  Well,  that  is  exactly  what  I  have  been  trying  to 
explain.  It  all  came  of  that  abominable  system  of 
classifying.  Women  were  this  and  women  were  that, 
and  it  was  very  largely  their  own  fault.  Which  sex 
was  it  that  used  to  say, '  My  dear,  that  is  unladylike. 
Don't  imitate  that  nasty  bold  girl  who  handles  mice 
as  if  she  were  a  navvy  '  ?  Now  they  are  allowed  to 
be  competent  or  incompetent,  as  nature  made  them, 
and  you  are  doing  your  best  to  rebuild  the  whole 
obstacle  by  saying,  '  All  women  are  not  what  you 
think  them.  They  are  all  something  else.  They 
have  all  got  lovely,  pure,  high-browed  minds  and 
all  men  have  horrid  brutish  ones.'  You  are  only 
changing  a  guerilla  war  into  a  series  of  pitched 
battles.  I  detest  Mrs.  Vachell.  She  looks  like  a 
martyr,  and  she  is  only  a  hunger  striker." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  I  mean  she  is  a  rebel  with  no  sense  of  adventure. 
She  will  plot  against  any  sort  of  power  that  galls 
her  personally,  and  I  don't  think  she  uses  fair 
means ;  there's  no  gallantry  about  her.  It  is  all 
spitting  and  kicking  and  causing  harmless  people 
inconvenience." 

"  I  think  you  are  most  unfair,"  said  Evangeline 
hotly.  "  She  is  out  against  all  sorts  of  tyranny, 
the  sort  of  tyranny  that  Evan  would  exercise  over 
Ivor  if  he  could ;  the  tyranny  of  horrid  vulgar 
people  who  never  do  a  stroke  of  work  and  have  no 
brains  and  simply  live  on  enormous  incomes,  while 
women  are  sweated  and  slave-driven  or  forced  on 
to  the  street.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  her 
personally ;  Mr.  Vachell  is  the  least  interfering 


186  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

man  in  the  world,  and  they  are  not  particularly 
hard  up." 

"  Whom  does  she  think  she  is  going  to  do  good  to 
by  making  you  fed  up  with  Evan  ?  " 

"  She  doesn't ;  but  she  has  made  me  see  why  it 
is  that  he  doesn't  understand  children  and  why  I 
have  to  stand  up  to  him  if  I  want  to  save  Ivor. 
And  you  know,  Dicky,  it  is  such  a  joke,  because  Evan 
thinks  her  perfect  and  is  always  holding  her  up  as  a 
model  of  dignity  and  common  sense.  That  is  why 
I  want  Mrs.  Trotter  to  come.  It  does  make  me 
so  irritated  to  see  him  stalking  along  thinking  Mrs. 
Vachell  is  listening  with  the  deepest  interest  to 
what  he  says,  and  all  the  time  she  is  boiling  like  a 
volcano,  and  when  she  looks  quietest  I  know  she  is 
quite  white  hot  with  contempt  for  something  he 
has  said." 

"  Then  she  is  an  abominable  hypocrite,"  said 
Teresa  indignantly. 

"  I  know,"  her  sister  answered  rather  sadly, 
"  and  if  I  tell  Evan  the  least  little  bit  of  truth  about 
her  he  flies  at  me  and  won't  listen  ;  just  thunders 
me  down,  and  yet  I  am  really  fond  of  him.  But  she 
hates  him,  and  the  only  way  she  can  get  in  the 
truths  she  wants  to  say  is  to  keep  so  quiet  that  he 
doesn't  understand,  and  then  little  by  little  she 
undermines  his  ideas.  It  is  quite  wonderful  to 
watch." 

When  Mrs.  Trotter  came  she  surpassed  even 
Evangeline's  expectations.  It  may  be  necessary 
to  recall  to  the  reader's  mind  that  on  the  occasion 
when  Evan  had  burst  out  at  Cyril's  dinner-table 
on  the  subject  of  women  throwing  dirt  at  each  other 
the  exciting  cause  of  his  anger  had  been  Mrs. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  187 

Trotter's  sarcasm  on  the  wife  of  the  Staff  Captain, 
who  wanted  to  "  get  into  the  University  set,"  and 
was  alleged  to  have  incensed  her  husband  by  too 
frequent  references  to  Mr.  VachelTs  brain  power. 
Mrs.  Trotter  was  devoted  with  real  sisterly  affection 
to  the  Staff  Captain,  who  was  an  honest  blue-eyed 
Briton,  and  she  therefore  harboured  secret  dislike, 
both  of  the  University  set  and  of  Evan  with  his 
misplaced  belief  in  Mrs.  Vachell.  The  Hattons 
could  not  do  other  than  ask  her  to  dinner  on  the 
evening  when  she  arrived  at  her  lodgings,  alone 
with  the  child  and  its  nurse,  as  Captain  Trotter 
was  yachting  with  a  friend.  Evangeline  had 
mischievously  urged  the  Vachells  to  come  in  after 
the  meal  as  they  often  did.  When  they  arrived 
Evan  was  in  one  of  his  most  taciturn  moods,  having 
been  worried  by  his  wife's  daring  laughter  over  some 
misdemeanour  of  Ivor's.  She  was  comparing  notes 
with  Mrs.  Trotter,  whose  young  daughter  treated 
her  parents  with  fearless  impertinence,  the  common 
result  of  insensitiveness  in  favourable  surroundings. 
'  The  little  scamp  !  "  Mrs.  Trotter  exclaimed. 
"  He  and  Maisie  will  be  great  pals  I  expect.  She 
doesn't  care  a  rap  for  anybody.  Her  father  can't 
say  boo  to  a  goose  when  she  is  knocking  round.  I 
tell  him  he  had  better  give  it  up  and  save 
time." 

Evan  glanced  at  Mrs.  Vachell  and  saw  her  raise 
her  eyebrows  slightly.  It  soothed  him  to  be  assured 
that  she  shared  his  disgust  and  he  sat  down  by  her. 
"  I  am  very  sorry,"  he  said  in  a  low  voice.  "  We 
ought  to  have  warned  you." 

"  Oh  no,  please,"  she  answered.  "  It  is  very 
interesting ;  and  I  am  sure  Evangeline  enjoys  it. 


188  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

And  it  is  something  you  have  got  to  learn  some  time. 
You  may  have  daughters  of  your  own  in  days  to 
come,  and  then  you  will  know  how  to  save  yourself 
needless  worry  by  giving  In  at  once." 

"  Yes,  it  is  appalling,  isn't  it  ?  "  he  agreed, 
supposing  her  to  be  commenting  on  Mrs.  Trotter's 
remark.  "  But  perhaps  it  is  good  in  some  ways  to 
let  the  thing  go  on  as  grossly  and  blatantly  as 
possible.  It  will  achieve  its  own  destruction  all  the 
quicker." 

"  How  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  A  revulsion  is  bound  to  come,  and  it  will  be  all 
the  stronger  when  women  see  what  a  monstrous 
race  they  have  raised.  They  have  rebelled  against 
chastisement  with  whips  and  their  children  will 
chastise  them  with  scorpions." 

"  They  will,  indeed,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  I  am 
glad  I  have  no  children,  though  the  want  of  them 
put  out  the  sun  for  me  so  far  as  marriage  is  con- 
cerned. But  it  is  not  a  world  to  have  children  in 
just  now." 

"  If  you  had  brought  them  up  to  be  like  yourself 
they  would  have  helped  to  keep  the  balance,"  said 
Evan. 

"  Well,  you  shall  send  your  daughters  to  me  to 
bring  up,"  she  said,  turning  her  small  sphinx  face 
directly  to  him.  "  Evangeline  will  be  engrossed 
in  her  boys.  She  thinks  women  of  no  importance." 

"  It  is  not  that,"  said  Evan,  "  but  she  thinks 
nothing  of  importance  except  liveliness  and  getting 
the  pleasure  out  of  everything  that  happens,  and 
throwing  away  the  rest.  As  soon  as  anything  has 
to  be  bought  at  the  price  of  discomfort  it  is  worth- 
less to  her." 


THREE   LOVING   LADIES  189 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  said  she,  raising  her  eye- 
brows again.  "  Is  your  beautiful  Ivor  worth  so 
little  to  her  ?  You  surprise  me.  I  thought  she 
was  devoted  to  him." 

"  So  she  is,  but  she  won't  give  herself  the 
momentary  pain  of  correcting  him.  It  is  the  most 
fatal  cowardice.  I  don't  know  what  to  do  to  avert 
the  end  that  I  foresee." 

"  You  must  have  been  a  great  deal  with  children," 
she  remarked,  while  she  looked  at  him  with 
grave  inquiry.  "  Did  you  always  care  for  them, 
or  is  it  just  that  you  understand  them  so 
well  ?  " 

"  Every  man  knows  the  kind  of  way  a  boy  ought 
to  be  brought  up,"  he  replied  innocently. 

"  And  a  woman,  of  course,  understands  a  girl 
better  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  so." 

"  It  is  so  much  simpler  that  they  should  start  on 
wholly  different  lines  from  the  beginning." 

"  Well,  I  suppose  they  do  naturally.  I  know 
that  my  sisters  never  had  the  least  idea  what  I  was 
driving  at.  They  were  always  giggling  among 
themselves." 

"  And  your  mother  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  My  mother  was  a  wonderful  woman,"  Evan 
replied.  His  tone  made  it  clear  that  discussion  was 
barricaded  along  that  road. 

"  I  don't  want  to  persuade  you  to  discuss  her, 
but  please  answer  one  question  truthfully.  Suppose 
you  had  done  something  that  you  knew  she  would 
dislike,  not  because  it  was  wrong  in  itself,  but 
because  she  had  no  experience  of  a  wish  to  do  it 
herself ;  let  us  take  for  an  instance  that  delightful 


igo  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

story  I  heard  about  your  taking  a  German's  watch 
to  pieces  and  what  you  did  with  it." 

"  Who  told  you  that  story  ?  "  he  asked, 
frowning. 

"  The  Staff  Captain's  wife  told  my  husband.  It 
amused  him  and  it  amused  her,  because  she  has  had 
parents  who  educated  her  between  them  ;  they 
didn't  believe  in  female  sheep  and  male  goats." 

"  I  find  all  that  sort  of  telling  of  stories  very 
offensive,"  said  Evan.  "  But  if  they  choose  to 
hear  it  it  is  nothing  to  me.  There  is  no  harm 
in  it." 

"  But  your  mother  would  have  held  a  different 
opinion  if  she  had  known  ?  " 

"  Why  are  you  asking  these  questions,  Mrs. 
Vachell  ?  "  She  saw  disappointment  in  his  face, 
and  knew  she  must  pick  her  way  delicately. 

"  Because  you  were  good  enough  to  give  me  some 
of  your  confidence  in  a  difficulty  and  I  was  trying 
to  make  you  understand  what  I  think  is  a  point  of 
great  importance  to  you  and  Evangeline  and  Ivor. 
What  I  say  is  that  you  were  not  perfectly  brought 
up  as  you  think,  because  you  grew  up  with  the 
idea  that  what  was  all  right  for  you  as  a  man  would 
offend  your  mother  as  a  woman,  even  to  hear  about. 
That  means  that  all  through  your  life  you  could 
only  enjoy  her  society  within  limits,  and  you  were 
either  obliged  to  worry  out  every  difficulty  alone 
in  your  head,  or  else  to  chance  it  among  outsiders 
who  had  not  a  quarter  of  the  interest  in  you  that 
she  had.  You  must  have  felt  very  lonely,  or  you 
wouldn't  have  shown  me  so  much  confidence  as  you 
have.  Have  you  ever  tried  Evangeline  as  a  con- 
fidante ?  She  has  not  been  brought  up  with  many 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  191 

prejudices — not  enough  you  think.  And  one  thing 
more.  Don't  you  think  that  Ivor  is  better  off  than 
you  were  at  his  age  ?  I  am  sure  he  is  less  harassed 
with  problems  and  he  will  have  a  better  brain  than 
his  father,  because  it  won't  have  been  prematurely 
worn  out."4 

"It  is  no  use  telling  me  he  won't  go  to  bits  if 
he  has  no  principles  to  fall  back  on,"  said  Evan 
doggedly. 

"  But  what  about  Evangeline's  principles  ?  " 
Mrs.  Vachell  persisted. 

"  She  has  none.  That  is  the  whole  point.  It  is 
where  we  started  from " 

'  You  two  are  carrying  on  a  very  long  flirtation," 
interrupted  Mrs.  Trotter  from  the  other  side  of  the 
room.  "  Can't  we  hear  what  it  is  all  about  ?  I 
heard  something  about  principles  just  now.  Do  you 
believe  in  principles,  Captain  Hatton  ?  " 

'  Yes,"  said  Evan.  "  I  hope  you  are  pleased 
with  the  lodgings  my  wife  found  for  you." 

'  Yes,  thank  you,  they  are  delightful.  But 
talking  of  principles,  do  you  know,  Mrs.  Vachell, 
that  your  friend  Fisk  has  been  making  the  most 
dreadful  havoc  with  his  principles  ?  You  see  we 
never  get  rid  of  these  students  like  the  ordinary 
undergraduates  are  disposed  of,  because  they  don't 
go  down  for  the  vacs.  They  are  at  home  all  the 
time.  And  he  has  been  spending  his  spare  time 
in  stirring  up  the  Welsh  and  the  Irish  and  every 
sort  of  rabble  in  the  place,  and  holding  meetings  and 
passing  resolutions.  He  gets  hold  of  the  wives 
and  tells  them  they  ought  to  be  dressed  in  velvet 
and  silk,  and  have  time  to  read  and  play  the  piano. 
But  Mrs.  Price  says  all  that  is  quite  inconsistent 


192  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

with  Communism.  The  real  Communists  want 
everyone  to  live  as  simply  as  possible  and  earn  a 
small  amount  each  day  and  then  improve  their 
minds.  But  since  Mr.  Fisk  spent  those  few  days 
with  the  Prices  he  has  lost  all  his  noble  ideas  about 
garden  cities  and  honest  toil  and  sandals  or  what- 
ever he  believed  in,  and  in  place  of  the  blood  that 
was  to  be  spilled  in  the  cause  of  education  and 
leisure  and  concerts  and  so  on  he  now  wants  rapine, 
and  oh !  the  most  frightful  outrages !  so  that 
everyone  may  change  places.  He  and  his  friends 
are  to  have  education  and  champagne  and  talk 
big,  while  their  female  relations  play  the  gramophone 
and  order  Mrs.  Price  about.  It  is  all  screamingly 
funny.  Dear  me,  Captain  Hatton,  pray  don't 
look  at  me  like  that.  Do  you  think  one  ought  not 
to  laugh  at  poor  silly  creatures  ?  I  do  find  human 
nature  so  very  amusing  sometimes.  What  do  you 
think,  Professor  Vachell  ?  Do  you  think  the 
universities  are  doing  good  or  harm  ?  " 

"  They  have  hardly  reached  an  age  of  full-grown 
responsibility  yet,"  he  replied.  "  When  ladies 
and  Labour  have  joined  our  deliberations  for  a  few 
years  we  shall  be  able  to  give  a  better  opinion." 

"  Now,  don't  be  sarcastic,"  Mrs.  Trotter  warned 
him  with  a  finger.  "  That  is  very  naughty  of  you. 
I  hope  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  your  beautiful 
cloistered  calm  is  invaded  in  any  such  way.  I  can't 
imagine  women  and  tradesmen  holding  forth  in 
Oxford,  can  you,  Mrs.  Vachell  ?  " 

"  So  long  as  the  present  generation  of  poor  weak 
fools,  who  will  risk  nothing,  survive  it  is  rather 
difficult,"  she  answered  quietly.  Evan  started 
slightly  as  she  spoke.  "  But  even  though  every 


THREE   LOVING  LADIES  193 

year  the  percentage  is  less  of  boys  who  are  brought 
up  to  be  bullies  and  of  girls  whose  intelligence 
is  crushed,  it  will  take  a  long  time  to  destroy  the 
tradition.  Don't  worry,  Mrs.  Trotter.  Your  sys- 
tem will  probably  last  your  time,  and  if  your  little 
girl  does  scandalise  you  by  learning  some  other 
trade  than  husband  hunting,  she  may  make  up  by 
marrying  a  tradesman  Prime  Minister." 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  at  all  likely,"  Teresa 
broke  in.  "  The  tradesman  Prime  Minister  would 
want  a  perfect  lady  for  his  wife  ;  they  always  do. 
They  boast  of  the  work  that  their  women  do  when 
they  want  to  compare  them  with  what  they  call 
the  idle  rich  ;  but  the  very  first  thing  they  want 
to  buy  for  their  wives  and  daughters  is  exemption 
from  any  kind  of  work." 

"  Nonsense,  my  dear  Teresa,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  They  are  the  keenest  of  all  that  their  daughters 
should  have  '  the  schooling.'  ' 

"  Yes,  but  that  is  only  so  that  they  may  not 
have  to  do  housework  or  be  ordered  about  in  shops. 
They  think  that  education  for  a  girl  means  her 
marrying  into  another  class  and  keeping  a  servant. 
They  are  just  like  us.  They  hate  squalor  and  want 
to  live  like  we  do.  They  don't  care  for  learning  in 
itself  any  more  than  we  do " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Miss  Fulton,"  Mr.  Vachell 
interrupted.  "Do  I  understand  that  you  put 
down  my  laborious  work  of  research  to  a  sordid 
hope  of  fitting  myself  to  dine  at  Buckingham 
Palace,  or  even  living  there  some  day  ?  You  are 
wounding  me  very  much." 

"  No,  of  course  not,"  said  Teresa.  "  You  are 
quite  different ;  you  are  a  man.  I  am  sure  lots  of 


194  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

men  wanted  to  learn  because  they  are  interested. 
I  was  thinking  of  what  they  wanted  for  their 
daughters." 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think  the  Principal  wants 
for  our  excellent  Emma  ?  "  he  went  on.  "  That 
she  should  marry  the  Prince  of  Wales  ?  I  don't 
believe  she  has  got  the  ghost  of  a  chance,  so  you  had 
better  stop  her  while  you  can." 

"  Don't  muddle  up  what  I  say  like  that,"  said 
Teresa.  "  Emma  only  wants  to  stop  mothers 
giving  their  babies  rhubarb  pie,  and  to  persuade 
fathers  to  buy  bread  instead  of  beer ;  and  she 
wants  them  to  be  clean  and  have  time  and  money 
enough  to  find  out  what  they  can  do." 

"  But  where  does  Maisie  Trotter's  husband  come 
in  ?  "  asked  Evan,  who  was  also  grateful  for  the 
diversion  that  Teresa  had  made. 

"  I  haven't  the  least  idea.  I  have  lost  sight  of 
him.  Oh,  no,  I  remember ;  he  was  to  be  Prime 
Minister.  It  will  be  no  good  for  Maisie  to  live  up 
to  him  in  the  way  of  education,  because  his  sisters 
will  do  that.  He  will  want  a  pink  and  white  princess 
who  can  detect  a  crumpled  rose  leaf  under  the 
mattress.  I  assure  you  that  is  what  working  people 
ask  for.  It  is  the  really  valuable  thing  that  they 
have  lost,  and  they  are  often  so  silly,  poor  darlings, 
and  think  it  comes  with  money.  You  know  how 
fussy  people  like  the  Prices  are  about  breeding, 
and  they  spend  and  spend,  trying  to  buy  it  some- 
how and  knowing  that  they  fail.  It  is  so  sad." 

"  Oh,  everything  is  sad  if  you  notice  it,"  said 
Mrs.  Trotter  impatiently.  "  I  don't  believe  in 
pitying  people  for  not  being  different  from  what 
they  are.  I  once  met  a  woman  who  said  she 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  195 

disliked  travelling  in  public  conveyances  because 
women's  hats  were  pathetic ;  something  about  the 
trimming ;  if  you  ever  heard  such  nonsense ! 
Now  I'm  off  and  thank  you  all  very  much  for  a 
pleasant  evening.  Anyone  coming  my  way  ?  " 


CHAPTER  XV 

"  WELL,  I  am  sure,  Roderick,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter 
as  she  turned  the  last  page  of  a  letter  she  was 
reading,  "  Evangeline  Hatton  seems  to  be  laying 
up  a  nice  future  for  herself.  Emmie  Trotter  is 
staying  down  there  with  Maisie  and  she  says  that 
Mrs.  Vachell  is  in  and  out  of  the  Hattons'  house 
the  whole  time,  influencing  Evangeline  to  run 
down  her  husband.  And  that  poor  Evan  Hatton 
is  as  blind  as  a  bat  and  running  after  Mrs.  Vachell 
all  the  time.  Of  course,  Amy  Vachell  is  one  of 
those  hard  women  who  never  see  when  men  are 
attracted  by  them.  All  she  thinks  of  is  her  social 
work  and  I  have  often  told  her  it  is  dangerous  and 
that  in  her  anxiety  to  put  women  on  a  higher  footing 
she  forgets  that  men  persist  in  remaining  on  the 
lower  one  and  they  misunderstand  her  motives. 
I  knew  she  would  get  into  trouble  some  day." 
There  was  a  note  of  triumph  in  her  voice. 

"  Yers,"  her  husband  answered  deprecatingly 
over  the  top  of  his  pince-nez.  "  Yers — yers — 
very  foolish  of  her." 

"  They  will  come  to  grief  in  the  end,  you  will 
see,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  as  one  who  observes  the 
first  swallow  of  the  season. 

She  met  Mrs.  Eric  Manley  that  afternoon  at  a 
sale  of  work  on  behalf  of  an  inebriates'  home  in 
Mrs.  Abel's  parish,  They  wandered  together  from 

196 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  197 

stall  to  stall,  inspecting  photograph  frames  orna- 
mented with  landscapes  in  poker  work,  table  centres 
and  tea-cosies  of  hand-painted  satin,  pinafores 
edged  with  cheap  lace,  preposterous  woollen  gar- 
ments for  all  ages,  dreary  confections  in  flannelette 
that  would  make  a  Hottentot  pessimistic,  dusters, 
packets  of  Lux  and  grate  polish  ;  everything  that 
could  most  vividly  recall  the  horrors  of  the  Will  to 
Live  and  the  Desire  to  Decorate  at  Random.  The 
two  friends  sat  down  presently  to  tea  in  a  small 
room  festooned  with  coloured  muslin,  served  by 
ladies  who  were  beginning  to  feel  the  running  about 
rather  a  strain  though  great  fun. 

"  Well,  my  dear,  how  is  it  that  you  are  still 
here  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  I  told  Mrs.  Abel 
that  it  was  a  bad  time  to  have  the  sale  as  everybody 
would  be  away,  but  she  said  that  some  of  the  best 
helpers  would  have  more  time  now.  Of  course, 
we  shall  get  off  to  Scotland  later.  I  heard  to-day 
that  Evangeline  Hatton  and  her  husband  are  not 
enjoying  their  holiday  very  much,  poor  things. 
They  are  at  Roscombe  with  the  boy  and  Teresa 
Fulton,  and  the  Vachells  are  there  too.  I  am 
afraid  Amy  Vachell  is  stirring  up  mischief.  It  is 
a  great  pity  for  such  young  married  things." 

"  Oh,  who  told  you  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Manley. 

"  Emmie  Trotter  for  one.  She  is  quite  worried 
about  it.  Captain  Hatton  is  so  dogged,  you  know, 
with  that  kind  of  foolish  religious  fervour.  It 
does  blind  people  so  when  it  takes  hold  of  them  ; 
they  don't  seem  to  see  anything  else.  Of  course 
he  is  a  splendid  man  ;  so  upright  and  devoted  to 
her.  But  I  do  think  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  get 
carried  away  by  that  kind  of  thing." 


198  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  And  what  is  Mrs.  Vachell  after,  do  you  sup- 
pose ?  "  inquired  her  friend. 

"  Oh,  dear  Amy  !  I  am  sure  I  don't  know.  Of 
course  one  knows  that  she  is  absolutely  straight ; 
no  one  could  doubt  that.  But  it  is  a  pity,  I  think, 
the  things  she  does  sometimes — with  that  far-away 
look  of  hers,  don't  you  know  ?  She  may  have 
encouraged  Evangeline  without  meaning  anything, 
and  made  her  rebel  against  his  very  dogmatic 
manner.  And  the  Professor  is  so  silly ;  he  really 
is.  All  that  about  Mrs.  Harting  was  so  absurd. 
She  is  a  very  intellectual  woman  ;  I  get  on  with  her 
splendidly,  we  have  so  much  in  common  ;  and  she 
threw  herself  into  all  his  excavations  and  so  on, 
and  of  course  dear  Amy  was  just  a  little — well, 
she  didn't  like  it ;  naturally  she  wouldn't ;  but 
there  was  absolutely  no  more  in  it  than  that. 
However,  it  may  have  made  Amy  bitter  and  perhaps 
she  has  lashed  out  against  men  and  put  Evangeline 
up  to  some  nonsense.  I  wonder  if  I  could  do  any 
good  by  having  a  chat  with  her  mother." 

"  I  should  leave  it  alone,  I  think,"  Mrs.  Manley 
advised.  "  You  won't  get  anything  out  of  Mrs. 
Fulton.  She  is  so  extraordinarily  broad-minded 
and  indulgent  and  thinks  everybody  means  well." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  with 
her  head  on  one  side.  "  I  don't  know  altogether 
that  I  should  have  said  that.  Dear  Susie  Fulton 
is  very  shrewd  and  likes  to  keep  the  peace  in  the 
family,  but  she  would  very  much  dislike  the  General 
getting  to  hear  anything  from  outside  sources,  and 
it  might  be  best  to  warn  her  privately.  What  do 
you  think  ?  " 

"  Well,  you  might  drop  in,"  said  Mrs.  Manley. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  199 

"  I  could  drive  you  round  there  if  you  have  bought 
all  you  want  now.  Perhaps  I  had  better  not  come 
in.  You  would  prefer  to  talk  about  it  alone." 

"  Perhaps  that  would  be  wise,"  Mrs.  Carpenter 
agreed.  "  I  really  think  it  is  the  kind  thing  to 
do.  It  would  be  such  a  pity  if  anything  got  round." 

She  found  Susie  at  home  and  tea  being  cleared 
away.  "  I  have  had  some,  my  dear,  thank  you," 
said  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  Quite  an  excellent  tea  at 
dear  Jenny  Abel's  little  sale,  where  I  was  buying 
for  all  I  was  worth.  Such  a  poor  lot  of  things.  I 
am  afraid  they  won't  have  done  very  well ;  but 
then  they  don't  manage  that  place  at  all  as  it  should 
be  done.  They  ought  to  call  a  meeting  and  have 
the  whole  thing  laid  out  and  make  a  proper  appeal. 
It  is  no  good  patching  up  with  little  affairs  like  that. 
No  one  wants  to  buy  at  all  nowadays ;  we  are  all 
overdone  with  sales  of  work.  Still,  the  things 
won't  be  wasted.  I  just  pass  them  on  to  the  next. 
Your  little  Teresa  is  not  back  again  with  you  yet, 
I  suppose  ?  " 

"  No,  she  is  still  with  Evangeline,"  said  Susie. 
"  They  are  staying  on  as  long  as  the  weather  lasts. 
The  Vachells  and  the  Trotters  are  there,  too,  so 
they  are  quite  a  pleasant  little  party." 

They  talked  nicely  in  this  way  for  some  time 
and  then  Mrs.  Carpenter  said,  lowering  her  voice 
mysteriously,  "  You  didn't  gather,  did  you,  that 
there  was  any  little  difficulty  with  Evangeline 
seeing  so  much  of  dear  Amy  Vachell  ?  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  she  is  just  the  person  whom  I  should 
choose  to  be  very  much  with  a  young  mother, 
who,  of  course,  wants  to  see  everything  couleur  de 
rose." 


200  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Dear  me,  no,"  Susie  replied  in  gentle  as- 
tonishment. "  Is  there  any  difficulty  about  any- 
thing ?  I  didn't  know.  What  makes  you  think 
so  ?  " 

"  My  dear,  it  was  just  an  impression  that  was 
whispered  to  me  by  a  little  bird  who  knows  them 
very  well.  I  won't  tell  you  whom  because  it 
wouldn't  be  fair,  and  of  course  there  was  nothing 
wrong  anywhere,  but  just  the  idea  that  Evangeline 
and  her  hubby  were  inclined  to  drift  a  little  in 
opposite  directions  and  that  Amy  Vachell — who  is 
so  open-hearted  and  sincere  and  has  such  a  high 
opinion  of  women  and  the  place  they  should  take 
in  the  home — may  perhaps  have  unconsciously 
made  a  little  mischief.  Captain  Hatton  believes  so 
very  strongly  in  the  dogmatic  side  of  religion, 
doesn't  he  ?  and  he  may  suppose  that  Amy  goes 
further  with  him  in  her  opinions  than  she  does. 
But  that  is  all ;  just  to  put  you  on  your  guard. 
It  was  the  merest  trifle  that  I  heard,  but  it  would 
be  such  a  pity  if  it  went  any  further  when  you  as 
a  mother  could  put  it  all  right,  probably,  in  a 
moment  with  just  a  word." 

"  Oh,  I  am  sure  there  is  nothing  in  it,"  said 
Susie  contentedly.  "  People  make  too  much  of 
Evan's  manner,  and  he  means  nothing  ;  it  is  all 
on  the  surface.  He  is  a  most  delightful  fellow  and 
Evangeline  is  wrapped  up  in  him.  But  it  was  so 
kind  of  you  to  come  and  tell  me.  I  often  think 
people  are  not  outspoken  enough." 

She  said  nothing  about  Mrs.  Carpenter's  visit 
until  Teresa  came  home,  and  then  she  chose  the 
next  evening  when  Cyril  was  peacefully  reading 
in  an  armchair.  Teresa  had  put  away  a  bundle  of 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  201 

papers  from  Emma's  office,  over  which  she  had  been 
toiling  with  evident  fatigue  and  depression. 

"  I  hope  dear  little  Ivor  is  not  vexing  his  father 
as  much  as  he  did  while  he  was  a  baby,"  Susie  began 
quietly  over  her  knitting. 

"  He  doesn't  get  into  many  rows,"  said  Teresa. 
"  It  would  be  almost  better  if  he  did." 

"  How  do  you  mean,  dear  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  Evan  says  so  little,  it  is  rather 
frightening  sometimes.  He  just  looks  and  you 
don't  know  what  he  is  thinking." 

"  Evangeline  doesn't  worry,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  think  she  does.  She  is  much  thinner 
than  she  used  to  be." 

"  I  daresay  that  is  the  damp  of  Drage,"  Susie 
remarked.  "It  is  a  very  relaxing  place,  I  have 
heard."  Teresa  laughed,  not  very  merrily. 

"  Mother,  darling,"  she  asked,  looking  at  Susie 
with  kindly  curiosity,  "  if  Father  bit  you  do  you 
think  you  would  say  it  was  owing  to  the  frost  ?  I 
believe  you  would." 

"  What  an  absurd  thing  to  say,  dear.  I  don't 
talk  so  much  about  the  weather,  do  I  ?  It  is  a 
subject  I  have  always  detested  ;  it  is  so  common- 
place. But  if  you  are  laughing  because  I  said  that 
Drage  is  damp  that  is  ridiculous.  Everyone  knows 
it  is  and  there  is  nothing  so  depressing  as  a  place 
that  is  all  on  clay."  She  left  the  room  presently 
and  Cyril  put  down  his  book. 

"  How  old  are  you,  Dicky  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Twenty-five  next  month.     Why  ?  " 

'  You  seem  to  have  grown  a  little  and  I  couldn't 
remember  how  long  we  had  been  here.  It  is  a 
devil  of  a  long  time.  Sit  down  there  for  a  minute 


202  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

and  tell  me  something  I  want  to  know.  Aren't 
you  wasting  your  time  a  bit,  young  woman  ? 
frousting  down  there  with  Emma  Gainsborough. 
Or  is  it  what  you  want  ?  " 

"  I  am  rather  in  a  fog,"  said  Teresa.  He  said 
nothing  and  she  went  on,  "  I  used  to  look  at  people 
paddling  along  in  the  mud,  streaming  past  all  the 
time  ;  you  remember  the  first  time  we  went  down 
to  the  docks  together  and  came  back  on  a  tram  ? 
It  fascinated  me.  I  had  always  felt  that  there  was 
something  that  my  mind  was  chasing  after,  as  if 
I  were  half  asleep  and  shouldn't  wake  up  until  I 
had  found  out  what  I  wanted  to  know.  Have  you 
ever  felt  like  that  ?  " 

"  No,  I  am  not  much  troubled  with  what  is  called 
the  Higher  Mind,"  said  Cyril.  "  But  I  don't  dis- 
believe in  it  on  that  account.  In  fact  I  think  it  is 
a  good  thing  if  properly  used.  But  go  on.  How 
does  it  work  out  ?  " 

"  Well,  they  all  look  so  angry  and  miserable 
and  discontented,"  she  explained.  "  There  was 
some  mystery  or  other  that  cut  me  off  from  them 
like  a  misunderstanding  ;  some  enormous  grievance 
or  injustice  that  divided  us  and  our  lot  from  them 
and  their  lot,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  wanted  to  break 
through  it  somehow — anyhow — and  say,  '  Here  ! 
Let  me  in  !  I  won't  be  left  outside.  Tell  me  what 
you  want  and  I  will  get  it  for  you  somehow.'  I 
wanted  to  give  them  everything  I  had  ;  not  only 
money,  but  the  kind  of  pleasure  that  makes  it  of  no 
importance  whether  one  has  money  or  not.  And 
then  they  let  me  in.  Strickland  let  me  in  first.  She 
told  me  such  a  lot  when  she  found  that  I  wasn't 
inquisitive  or  preaching.  She  explains  things  so 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  203 

clearly  and  I  began  to  see  what  the  grievance  is 
and  then  it  got  more  hopeless  than  ever,  because 
I  saw  that  before  you  can  get  into  the  frame  of 
mind  that  is  independent  of  poverty  you  must  be 
decently  fed  and  warm  or  else  you  can't  think  at 
all  for  sheer  animal  discomfort.  I  suppose  mystics 
come  back  down  the  same  road  by  smashing  the 
body  after  they  have  used  it  to  get  a  mind  with. 
They  couldn't  begin  as  slum  babies  and  say,  '  I 
must  fast  and  subdue  the  flesh.'  You  see,  if  you 
start  hungry,  unless  you  have  a  perfectly  sweet 
nature  you  probably  think  of  nothing  but  clawing 
for  food  and  knocking  down  someone  else  who  has 
got  some.  Then  you  find  people  down  there  with 
all  sorts  of  wonderful  qualities  so  strong  that  they 
manage  to  keep  their  end  of  the  stick  up  in  spite 
of  everything.  So  that  topples  down  all  your  hopes 
when  you  see  that  all  the  virtues  that  you  were 
going  to  bring  in  by  making  more  comfortable 
surroundings  are  there  already  in  the  most  wonder- 
ful perfection.  It  just  thickens  the  mystery  and 
makes  the  barrier  and  the  fog  more  unaccountable 
than  it  was  from  outside.  If  you  could  see  the 
horrors  that  some  people  contend  against  and  still 
remain  as  good  as  gold  and  gay  as  larks,  I  think 
you  would  stop  being  so  perfectly  disgusting  as 
you  are  sometimes  about  my  Potters  and  people." 
"  No,  I  shouldn't,  my  dear,"  he  said,  "  but  not 
because  I  don't  believe  you.  But  why  should  I 
make  myself  sick  with  smells  that  I  can't  prevent  ? 
I  should  be  of  no  earthly  use  sitting  by  the  bedside 
of  an  aged  fish-wife  with  my  nose  in  my  handker- 
chief, and  I  don't  understand  accounts  or  babies. 
I  am  much  more  use  at  my  own  job,  which  neither 


204  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Emma  nor  your  friend  Jason  nor  even  the  lion- 
hearted  Fisk  could  do." 

"No,  no,  you  are  much  better  where  you  are," 
she  agreed.  "  And  now  you  see  I  have  got  beyond 
the  first  fog  into  a  worse  one.  I  feel  cut  off  from 
the  side  I  left  and  I  can  do  nothing  for  the  others 
because  they  have  got  all  the  means  of  happiness 
that  I  wanted  to  give  them.  You  see,  if  anything 
good  survives  there  it  gets  awfully  good  because 
it  takes  so  much  exercise." 

"  Yes  ?  "  said  Cyril. 

"  I  don't  know  how  much  you  were  ever  in  love 
with  anyone,  but  you  wouldn't,  would  you,  have 
married  Mother  if  she  had  not  been  rather  extra 
pretty  and  very,  very  well  washed  ?  " 

"  No,  Dicky,  you  are  not  going  to  win  on  that. 
I  should  never  have  got  within  speaking  distance 
of  her,  so  the  Higher  Mind  would  not  have  con- 
tended with  the  lower.  No  war,  no  victory.  You 
see,  your  Misters  and  Misseses  of  the  unwashed 
brigade  start  on  an  equal  footing.  Mr.  Potter  has 
nothing  to  forgive  before  he  inquires  into  the 
perfections  of  Mrs.  Potter's  character." 

"  Very  well,  we'll  try  again,"  she  said  patiently. 
"  I  must  make  you  understand  somehow.  We'll 
take  Mother.  She  was  devoted  to  us  and  she 
loves  babies  as  she  only  sees  clean  ones.  Suppose 
she  lived  in  a  slum  and  had  half-a-dozen  of  them 
squalling  and  screaming  and  covered  with  every 
sort  of  hideous  filth  and  was  kept  awake  all  night 
and  saw  them  being  hungry  and  ill  and  cold.  Just 
think  what  a  tremendous  sort  of  love  she  would 
need  to  have  to  make  her  go  on  with  it ;  and  how 
honest  she  would  have  to  be  not  to  steal  for  them  ; 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  205 

and  how  unselfish  to  go  hungry  so  that  they  might 
have  what  food  there  was,  and  how  patient  not 
to  grumble  and  scold.  You  need  a  super  quality 
of  every  good  point  in  a  character  in  order  to 
keep  up  at  all.  You  can't  say  that  being  used 
to  horrors  takes  away  all  the  merit  of  enduring 
them  with  real  style  like  you  see  sometimes  down 
there. 

"  No,  not  all,"  said  Cyril,  "  but  then,  Dicky,  you 
must  be  fair.  Lots  of  things  that  I  find  very  hard 
to  bear,  such  as — no,  I  won't  go  into  them  ;  you 
are  too  tender-hearted  and  I  don't  want  to  add  to 
your  worries.  But  I  assure  you  I  am  a  very  noble 
fellow  in  my  way  though  nothing  I  have  to  put  up 
with  would  rouse  any  sympathy  in  your  fog-bound 
heroes." 

Teresa  looked  at  him  anxiously,  critical  and 
questioning. 

"  I  am  only  trying  to  cheer  you  up,  dear,"  he 
assured  her.  "  I  have  a  very  tidy  mind — untidi- 
ness at  the  office  is  one  of  the  things  that  I  was 
going  to  mention  just  now — and  I  dislike  arguing  in 
a  circle.  That  is  where  Emma  is  more  suited  to 
her  job  than  you  are.  She  never  stands  about  and 

says,  '  Yes,  but  on  the  other  hand '  or,  '  what 

can  we  do,  because  every  way  you  look  at  it  it 
doesn't  make  sense  ?  '  She  plugs  along  as  busy  as 
a  bee,  fitting  splints  on  to  one  and  a  flannel  petticoat 
and  a  book  of  poetry  on  to  another  and  doesn't 
wear  herself  out  in  guessing  whether  the  creatures 
are  angels  or  devils.  Dicky,  my  dear,  you  are 
twenty-five  and  you  are  missing  everything  that 
you  have  been  looking  for  and  that  you  haven't 
found.  You  have  said  that  you  only  got  past  one 


206  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

fog  into  another  and  that  you  want  to  give  what 
you  have  to  starving  people  who  need  it.  What 
about  David  ?  " 

"  I  do  want  so  dreadfully  to  marry  him,"  said 
Teresa  after  some  hesitation.  "  But  I  am  sure  it 
is  selfish.  He  won't  do  what  I  want  and  what 
would  make  it  all  right." 

"  What  won't  he  do  ?  " 

"  Sell  the  place  and  give  the  money  to  the  work 
Emma  is  doing.  It  wouldn't  make  much  differ- 
ence, I  know,  but  it  would  take  a  few  hundred 
children  out  of  the  mud  and  I  should  feel  I  had  done 
my  best." 

"  You  would  do  much  more  good  by  keeping 
those  damned  Prices  out  of  Aldwych.  You  never 
saw  such  a  mess  as  they  are  making  of  it.  It  is 
perfectly  beastly.  Enough  to  make  the  old  man 
turn  in  his  grave." 

"  But  it  is  the  wrong  way  to  live,"  she  persisted. 
"  I  have  no  right  to  glide  into  beautiful  things 
and  comfort  that  I  haven't  earned." 

"  Well,  look  here.  You're  pretty  comfortable 
to  start  with,  aren't  you  ?  Your  mother  and  I 
saw  to  that.  She  especially.  She  married  me 
because  she  wanted  a  child  and  like  a  good  careful 
bird  she  chose  the  downiest  nesting-place  she  could 
find  for  the  benefit  of  her  young." 

"  Oh,  Father,"  said  Teresa,  awestruck.  "  Wasn't 
she  in  love  with  you  ?  " 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it,"  he  replied. 

"  I  wish  she  had  married  a  poor  man,  then," 
said  the  girl.  "  It  would  have  saved  me  a  lot  of 
trouble.  But  to  go  back  to  what  you  said.  I 
couldn't  help  being  born  where  I  am,  but  I  can  give 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  207 

back  everything  I  have  got.     It  makes  it  worse  to 
marry  into  a  lot  more  luxury." 

"  How  much  do  you  think  your  friends  in  the  fog 
would  give  back  to  you  if  they  dropped  into  a 
soft  job  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  That  has  nothing  to  do  with  it." 

"  Yes,  it  has.  It  means  that  they  go  with  the 
stream  and  don't  drown  themselves  trying  to  dam 
it  up  with  a  bunch  of  flowers.  Keep  those  damned 
hucksters  out  of  Aldwych  and  keep  it  the  decent 
civilised  place  it  was ;  and  breed  young  Davids 
to  counteract  the  pernicious  spawning  of  Millport. 
You'll  be  far  better  employed.  You  can  invite 
all  the  young  Potters  to  tea  and  show  them  what 
they  may  attain  by  thrift  instead  of  greed.  They'll 
only  think  you  a  damned  fool  and  not  listen  to  a 
word  of  good  advice." 
i>  Teresa  was  silent. 

"  They  would  take  the  place  off  you  to-morrow 
if  they  could  and  say  you  weren't  fit  to  appreciate 
it.  And  they  would  undo  the  work  of  centuries 
that  have  been  spent  on  it  and  turn  it  into  a  hell 
of  their  own." 

"  They  wouldn't.  They  would  want  to  become 
gentle  people  and  build  it  up  again  in  their  own  way." 

"  Rot,"  said  Cyril.  "  Much  better  keep  it  as  a 
model  instead  of  wasting  it  all  first.  You  must 
keep  something  in  the  show  room.  It  is  no  good 
for  everybody  who  wants  an  airship  to  destroy  all 
there  are  and  begin  again  by  himself  with  a  glider." 

"  Why  are  you  two  silly  things  sitting  together 
in  the  dark  ?  "  said  Susie's  voice  at  the  door. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

"  THERE  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said  for  subscription 
lists  all  the  same,"  said  Mr.  Manley.  "  How  could 
you  have  the  hospitals  and  other  places  kept 
going  ?  "  Teresa  often  went  to  the  old  man  for 
help  in  her  schemes,  as  he  had  invited  her  to  do 
on  their  first  acquaintance.  They  were  good  friends, 
though  his  tolerance  of  institutions,  governors, 
spiritual  pastors  and  masters  puzzled  her  when  she 
tried  to  piece  it  together  with  the  other  side  of  his 
character ;  the  side  which  made  him  impatient 
with  all  sorts  of  pomposity  and  humbug.  He  de- 
lighted in  the  removal  of  lifeless  traditions  and  he 
welcomed  to  his  house  the  whole  of  the  small  army 
of  people  who  fought  for  the  life  of  the  city  against 
vanity,  self-interest  and  stupidity. 

"  But  the  way  people  go  home  to  a  fat  dinner, 
with  servants  running  round  the  table  with  more 
dishes,  after  they  have  sat  listening  to  speeches 
about  all  sorts  of  deadly  necessities  makes  me 
sick,"  she  said.  "  They  sign  a  cheque  for  a  sum 
that  is  just  large  enough  to  look  impressive  on  a 
list,  but  that  won't  make  the  least  difference  to  the 
way  they  live  ;  and  then  they  think  they  have  done 
everything  that  can  possibly  be  required  of  them." 

"  If  would  be  a  dull  world  if  there  were  no  kind- 
ness, only  obligation  and  compulsion,"  he  remarked. 
"  I  like  people  who  are  charitable  to  the  poverty  of 

208 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  209 

my  intelligence,  so  why  not  to  the  poverty  of  my 
comforts." 

"  But  if  some  starving  genius  were  to  head  a 
list  of  people  who  were  kind  to  Mr.  Price's  intelli- 
gence he  wouldn't  be  grateful." 

"  Well,  if  we  are  going  to  pounce  upon  ingratitude 
and  snobbery  in  one  place  let  us  be  down  on  it  all 
round,"  he  said.  "  I  tell  you  that  kindness  is  a 
good  thing  anywhere,  and  though  giving  and  taking 
is  always  a  ticklish  business  because  people  think 
too  much  of  themselves,  that  doesn't  make  it  any 
less  good.  By  the  way,  did  you  know  that  Fisk 
has  got  himself  locked  up  ?  " 

"  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,"  said  Teresa,  "  but 
what  for  especially  ?  " 

"  Inciting  to  breach  of  the  peace.  Of  course 
that  has  finished  him  so  far  as  his  career  goes.  He 
never  got  his  degree  and  now  he  is  too  old  and  too 
mad.  He  was  quite  a  decent  boy.  I  used  to  employ 
his  father  and  knew  him  quite  well.  He  was  as 
keen  as  possible  on  educating  the  lad.  Cranston 
has  a  great  deal  to  answer  for,  wasting  these  boys' 
time  so  that  they  don't  work  at  anything.  Fisk 
will  have  to  be  a  paid  agitator  when  he  comes  out 
in  order  to  make  a  living.  He'll  never  go  back 
to  learn  a  trade  now." 

"  How  do  you  manage  to  stand  the  Prices  ?  " 
Teresa  resumed  presently,  going  back  to  her  train 
of  thought.  "  I  have  often  wondered.  And  Mrs. 

Carpenter Oh,  dear  me,  I  have  got  to  hate 

rich  people  since  we  came  here.  At  first  I  was 
worried  about  the  poor.  I  wanted  money  not  to 
matter  either  way,  so  that  one  could  make  friends 
anywhere  and  there  shouldn't  be  a  barrier  of  habits 


210  THREE   LOVING  LADIES 

and  manners  that  some  of  them  were  born  into 
and  that  cut  them  off  from  their  natural  friends 
in  other  classes." 

"  But  that  is  nothing  new,"  he  said,  "  I  saw  when 
I  first  met  you  that  that  was  what  you  were  after 
and  you  thought  none  of  us  here  had  ever  had  the 
same  idea  at  all  except  good  old  Emma.  That  is 
why  I  wanted  to  make  friends  with  you.  I  didn't 
want  the  barrier  of  a  rich  dinner  table  to  separate 
you  from  your  natural  friend  here." 

Teresa  laughed.  "  Well,  it  didn't,  you  see.  But 
still,  I  don't  seem  able  to  leap  across  the  pine- 
apples to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Price.  What  does  she  mean 
by  saying  that  her  people  are  communists  ?  It 
does  seem  the  silliest  rot." 

"  They  are  intellectual  socialists.  People  who 
see  that  the  world  is  untidy,  which  it  certainly  is, 
but  they  haven't  the  taste  for  the  characters  that 
can  only  come  out  of  an  untidy  world.  I  am  a  bit 
of  a  reader  of  the  classics,  as  I  haven't  a  wife  to 
talk  to,  and  I  can't  see  any  of  the  people  I  love  best 
in  books  coming  out  of  a  world  where  everything 
is  as  neat  as  a  bedded-out  garden.  I  have  a  great 
dislike  of  culture,  as  it  is  called.  Education  is  one 
thing  and  so  is  enterprise,  and  Price  is  enterprising  ; 
but  I  must  say  I  don't  like  Botticelli  pictures  and 
cocoa  in  a  public-house,  and  that  is  what  Mrs.  Price 
means  by  saying  her  people  are  communists.  They 
are  wealthy  themselves  with  all  sorts  of  art  tastes 
and  live  comfortably,  and  they  like  to  preach. 
They  don't  understand  commerce  and  are  ashamed 
of  having  any  connection  with  it.  You  may  always 
suspect  a  man  who  is  prepared  to  run  a  business  he 
hasn't  served  in.  I've  the  same  suspicion  of  par- 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  211 

sons.  They  see  so  many  notices  up  everywhere, 
"  Beware  of  the  Devil !  '  that  they  get  tripping 
about  here,  there  and  everywhere  in  such  a  state  of 
nerves  that  they  forget  they  are  not  there  to  run 
God's  business,  but  to  find  out  what  He  wants  done. 
It  is  all  this  assuming  of  moral  responsibility 
instead  of  working  that  I  think  is  the  mistake.  Now 
you  see  what  I  meant  when  you  were  running  down 
charitable  institutions.  You  do  your  bit,  my 
dear,  and  help  to  keep  the  machinery  going.  You 
can't  run  it  alone  and  improvements  are  being  made 
all  the  time."  Teresa  got  up  to  go. 

"  Do  you  know  Mother  is  making  a  speech  to- 
day ?  "  she  said  doubtfully.  "  The  first  she  has 
ever  made  outside  a  drawing-room,  and  I  have  to 
go — shall  you  be  there  ?  It  is  in  the  small  room  at 
the  Town  Hall." 

"  What  is  the  meeting  f or  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  The  Mary  Popley  Home  for  women." 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  have  given  a  subscription,  but 
I  am  not  coming  to-day.  I  am  sure  she  will  do  it 
well ;  she  is  so  gentle  and  tactful.  We  want  more 
women  like  that  on  our  committees.  Some  of  them 
are  so  very  fierce.  That  is  why  I  like  Mrs.  Vachell, 
though  I  am  never  sure  what  she  has  got  up  her 
sleeve  ;  she's  rather  an  enigma." 

"  She  hates  men,  that  is  all  I  know,"  said  Teresa. 

"  Does  she  really  ?  How  very  remarkable.  I 
never  knew  that.  And  living  among  such  excellent 
men  and  great  scholars  as  she  does !  Good-bye, 
my  dear,  good-bye." 

"  I  suppose  you  are  not  coming,  Cyril  ?  "  said 
Susie,  later,  putting  on  her  gloves.  "  We  are  dining 


212  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

with  the  Gainsboroughs  after  the  meeting  ;  without 
dressing." 

"  No,  your  subjects  are  too  deep  for  me,  Sue,"  he 
replied.  "  I'll  have  something  ready  to  wet  your 
whistle  when  you  come  back,  and  keep  up  the  fire 
and  let  the  cat  out  and  that  sort  of  thing." 

"  Strickland  will  see  to  all  that,  dear,"  she  said. 
"  I  think  you  had  better  go  to  bed  if  you  feel  tired. 
I  expect  one  of  the  maids  will  be  up  to  make  tea 
if  we  want  it." 

When  they  arrived  at  the  Town  Hall  they  were 
shown  into  a  small  room  where  the  general  com- 
mittees of  charitable  institutions  were  often  held. 
Reports  were  read,  giving  an  outline  of  the  year's 
work  and  a  statement  of  the  financial  position  and 
requirements  ;  an  attempt  was  made  to  rouse  public 
interest,  accounts  were  then  passed  and  votes  of 
thanks  to  the  principal  helpers  and  the  chairman 
were  proposed,  seconded  and  carried.  Susie  had 
been  asked  to  second  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the 
committee. 

The  audience  consisted  of  a  large  number  of  her 
personal  friends,  a  few  dowdily  dressed  women  with 
serious,  lined  faces,  whom  she  knew  by  sight,  and 
dreaded  a  little  for  their  habit  of  turning  up  at  tea- 
parties  and  saying  tactless  things  about  the  be- 
haviour of  young  girls  in  the  Park  after  sunset,  the 
cruelty  of  parents  and  the  tendency  of  wives  to 
drink  to  excess,  in  spite  of  industrious  husbands. 
Very  often  they  introduced  these  subjects  just  when 
she  herself  had  been  expounding  the  perfection  of 
the  mother  instinct  or  the  disastrous  result  of 
confidence  in  a  young  and  innocent  mind.  They 
had  a  way  of  referring  to  crime  as  if  it  were  a  flaw 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  213 

in  a  work  of  art,  rather  than  a  snare  set  by  wicked 
poachers  for  the  Almighty's  pet  rabbits.  A  few 
of  the  outside  public  were  also  present,  with  the 
usual  vacant  faces,  perfunctory  clothes,  thin  hair, 
and  those  curious  eyes  of  the  English  stranger, 
which,  if  they  are  indeed  windows  of  the  soul, 
certainly  do  not  belong  to  a  country  where  romances 
are  carried  on  at  the  lattice.  Those  eyes  suggest 
Nottingham  lace  curtains  and  an  aspidistra  behind 
the  dim  panes  which  the  owner  never  approaches, 
unless  there  is  a  street  accident  or  a  ring  at  the  bell. 
They  enclose  many  human  preoccupations,  but 
nothing  that  is  likely  to  be  shared  with  the  passers- 
by. 

Susie  faced  the  eyes,  the  friendly  eyes,  the  busi- 
ness-like eyes  and  the  aspidistra  eyes.  The  chair- 
man had  called  on  her  to  second  the  vote  of  thanks, 
after  a  short-sighted  glance  round  to  make  sure  she 
was  there.  Her  dimple,  the  little  crease  in  the  satin 
cushion  of  her  cheek,  appeared,  and  she  smiled, 
catching  the  attention  of  the  first  few  rows. 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,"  she 
began,  "  I  think  it  extremely  kind  of  you  to  ask  me 
to  second  this  vote  of  thanks,  because  you  are  all 
so  busy  and  I  am  not  used  to  speaking,  nor  ex- 
perienced enough  in  your  work  to  be  of  very  much 
help.  But  in  thanking  our  splendid  committee  for 
all  they  have  done,  I  want  to  try  and  tell  everybody 
if  I  can,  how  deeply  I  feel  that  we  all  ought  to  do  a 
great  deal  more  to  help  these  poor  women.  Vice 
is  so  pitifully  easy  to  women  in  a  great  city  like 
this  (murmured  approval  was  heard  at  the  back). 
I  am  not  going  to  say  anything  against  men.  We 
are  the  wives  and  mothers  and  sisters  of  men,  and 


214  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

the  responsibility  lies  with  us  (slight  signs  of  cynicism 
from  an  aspidistra  eye  in  the  fifth  row).  But  what 
I  say  is  this.  All  our  influence  is  necessarily — must 
necessarily  be — of  no  use  so  long  as  our  girls  are 
wilfully  misled  by  the  idea  that  their  love  and 
innocent  confidence  will  be  understood  and  valued 
at  its  true  worth  by  the  naturally  coarser  and 
rougher  nature.  ("  How  thankful  I  am  father  didn't 
come  !  "  thought  Teresa.)  Men  go  into  the  world 
and  become  accustomed  to  hardness  and  cruelty, 
especially  in  foreign  countries,  with  which  a  great 
port  like  this  is  constantly  in  touch.  They  drink 
and  quarrel,  and  their  poor  homes  have  so  little 
beauty  to  encourage  them.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at 
that  a  young  girl  who  dreams  of  romance  and  her 
own  little  home  and  the  sound  of  baby  feet  should 
refuse  to  believe  that  these  things  are  of  less  value 
to  the  rough  sailor  or  soldier  or  merchant,  drunk 
with  wine  and  full  of  strong  passions  that  have  no 
place  in  her  finer  nature  ?  (The  chairman,  the 
treasurer  and  a  doctor,  who  happened  to  be  there, 
were  gazing  meditatively  at  the  electric  light 
fixtures,  the  desk,  the  floor,  anywhere  that  would 
afford  a  sufficiently  obscure  resting-place  for  any 
involuntary  expression  of  opinion  on  their  faces. 
They  felt  a  friendly  approval  of  Susie  as  a  nice, 
tender-hearted  little  woman,  but  all  the  same  they 
hoped  she  would  wind  up  soon.)  What  I  feel  so 
much  is  this,  that  although  great  sympathy  and 
great  patience  with  these  poor  girls  must  be  shown, 
and  although  they  must,  of  course,  be  taught  to  see 
the  dreadful  evil  that  they  do,  yet  until  wives  and 
mothers  and  sisters  impress  their  men  with  a  better 
understanding  of  a  woman's  feeling  about  these 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  215 

things,  and  make  them  see  that  the  finer  and  higher 
view  is  not  necessarily  foolish  and  sentimental — 
that  they  hurt  us  by  coarse  jokes  and  rough  actions, 
by  mistaking  love  of  motherhood  for  vulgar  flirta- 
tion— that  until  they  see  all  this  in  its  true  light  it 
is  useless  to  expect  that  trust  will  not  be  betrayed 
and  happy  girls  flung  back  into  these  Homes,  ruined 
and  disgraced.  Marriage  may  mean  so  much  to  a 
girl.  It  is  surely  worth  an  effort  from  us,  who  have 
had  our  trials  and  difficulties  and  misunderstandings, 
to  bring  home  to  the  boys  who  are  growing  up  a 
sense  of  those  qualities  which  they  lack  by  nature. 
I  have  much  pleasure  in  seconding  this  vote  of 
thanks  to  our  committee." 

She  sat  down  amidst  whole-hearted  applause 
from  her  friends  and  several  of  the  aspidistra-eyed. 
The  ladies  whom  she  feared  gave  a  few  business- 
like taps  with  one  hand  upon  the  other  and  fidgeted 
impatiently.  Everything  that  interested  them  in 
the  meeting  was  over  and  most  of  them  had  other 
engagements  or  voluminous  documents  at  home  to 
attend  to. 

The  vote  of  thanks  to  the  chairman  and  his  reply 
only  occupied  another  ten  minutes,  and  then  there 
was  tea  in  the  Lady  Mayoress's  parlour. 

"  What  a  splendid  speech  you  made,"  said  Mrs. 
Eric  Manley,  coming  up  to  Susie.  "  I  don't  know 
that  I  go  quite  as  far  as  you  do  about  the  innocence 
of  girls,  but  still " 

"  Oh,  don't  you  ?  "  said  Susie.  "  Of  course  a 
great  many  are  not  innocent,  because  they  have 
been  taught  so  young  by  seeing  all  kinds  of  dreadful 
things.  But  I  think  a  woman's  natural  character 
is  much  less  suspicious  than  a  man's."  Mrs. 


216  THREE   LOVING   LADIES 

Vachell  came  up  and  under  the  pretext  of  finding 
a  chair  drew  Susie  away  from  the  crowd. 

"  I  have  been  waiting  to  see  you,"  she  said.  "  I 
have  just  seen  Evangeline  off  to  Drage  again  and  I 
am  very  much  worried  about  her.  Has  she  written 
to  you  much  about  herself  ?  " 

"  No,  her  letters  are  generally  full  of  darling  Ivor," 
said  Susie. 

Mrs.  Vachell  looked  her  up  and  down  for  an  instant 
as  if  considering  whether  she  could  make  a  cut  in 
Susie's  plump  little  figure  without  letting  out  too 
much  sawdust  and  spoiling  it. 

"  She  didn't  tell  you  that  her  husband  thinks  of 
sending  Ivor  away  from  her  ?  " 

Susie's  eyes  grew  startled,  but  she  said  quietly, 
"  Don't  you  think  you  have  mistaken  a  joke  of  his  ? 
Why  should  he  do  such  a  thing  ?  " 

"  I  think  he  is  a  little  mad,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  The  war  shook  a  good  many  of  them.  He  was 
always  very  strict  with  Ivor,  wasn't  he  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,  but  then  men  are  so  silly  about  children," 
said  Susie,  a  little  reassured.  "  They  never  do 
understand  them." 

"  You  were  saying  this  afternoon  that  the  re- 
sponsibility for  making  them  understand  lies  with 
women,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  If  you  really  believe 
that,  it  is  time  for  you  to  help  Evangeline.  Her 
situation  seems  to  me  to  be  desperate." 

"  What  did  he  say  he  was  going  to  do  ?  "  Susie 
asked. 

"  He  told  me  in  confidence  that  he  means  to 
send  him  away  quite  soon,  in  a  year  perhaps — not 
to  a  boy's  school,  of  course,  but  a  sort  of  place  kept 
by  religious  ladies.  But  Evangeline  was  not  to 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  217 

know  that.  He  is  afraid  she  might  do  something 
violent,  come  to  you  and  her  father  or  make  some 
public  scandal.  He  hates  having  his  affairs  dis- 
cussed and  preferred  to  wait  until  the  time  comes." 

"  Men  are  really  very  tiresome  and  difficult 
sometimes,  aren't  they,"  said  Susie  with  a  sigh. 
"  I  do  wish  they  would  keep  to  their  own  affairs. 
Suppose  I  interfered  with  my  husband's  soldiers 
and  you  put  all  Mr.  Vachell's  diggings  upside  down 
on  the  shelves  when  he  had  arranged  them.  I 
can't  think  how  they  can  be  so  stupid.  I  am 
dreadfully  worried  about  what  you  tell  me,  because, 
of  course,  it  is  all  nonsense.  If  dear  Evan  suffers 
from  his  head  that  is  no  reason  why  he  should 
vent  it  on  a  little  boy.  Perhaps  a  doctor  might 
advise  some  tonic  that  would  do  him  good." 

"  There  is  no  tonic  for  a  bullying  disposition," 
said  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  Oh,  don't  you  think  so  ?  "  said  Susie.  "  I 
am  sure  the  blood  has  so  much  effect  on  those  kind 
of  ideas.  If  people  are  well,  you  know,  they  see 
things  quite  differently,  though,  of  course,  there  are 
some  things  that  they  will  never  understand,  unless 
they  are  poets  or  artists.  That  makes  a  great  deal 
of  difference,  I  think,  being  in  touch  with  beautiful 
things.  Those  religious  ideas  of  his  are  a  great 
mistake,  I  think  ;  all  about  Jehovah,  and  being  so 
full  of  judgment  and  wrath  and  so  on.  It  gives 
them  quite  a  wrong  idea  of  the  Bible.  But  I  think 
his  mother  must  have  been  a  masculine  sort  of 
woman  from  what  he  says.  Quite  a  little  joke 
sometimes  upsets  him.  Teresa  and  I  are  going  on 
to  the  Gainsboroughs.  Can  we  drop  you  ?  " 

All  through  the  evening  Susie  was  a  little  pre- 


2i8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

occupied.  She  was  thinking  out  a  plan  of  campaign 
by  which  she  might  save  Evangeline  from  the 
harsh  authority  of  her  husband,  as  she  had  saved 
her  from  the  prosy  ethics  of  the  schoolroom  when  she 
was  a  child.  But,  as  in  those  days  so  now,  she 
had  no  wish  to  reveal  herself  as  a  fighter.  Once 
recognised  as  a  partisan  she  would  lay  herself  open 
to  attack  and  perhaps  be  driven  from  her  high 
ground  of  superiority  to  earthly  passions.  She 
represented  in  her  own  mind  idealism,  tender 
remoteness  from  all  ugly  thoughts,  innocence  of 
all  desires  save  love  for  everybody.  Could  power 
be  more  strongly  hedged  about  from  attack  ? 

She  had  a  short  time  alone  with  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough, as  the  Principal  retired  to  work  in  his 
study  and  Emma  took  Teresa  away  to  her 
room. 

"  I  heard  from  a  sister  of  mine  at  Drage  to-day," 
Mrs.  Gainsborough  began,  "  that  they  think  they 
will  probably  be  sent  to  Egypt  quite  soon.  Will 
that  affect  Captain  Hatton  or  will  the  special  work 
he  is  doing  keep  him  behind  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  at  all,"  said  Susie.  "  I  hadn't 
heard  there  was  any  idea  of  their  going,  but  I  think 
my  husband  did  say  that  Evan  would  probably 
have  to  move  soon  in  any  case.  Those  special 
jobs  they  get  are  only  temporary." 

"  Would  Evangeline  go  with  him  ?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Gainsborough  ;  "  would  it  be  all  right  for  Ivor  ?  " 
A  possible  solution  to  all  difficulties  at  once  pre- 
sented itself  to  Susie.  "  I  hardly  think  he  could 
afford  to  take  them  both,"  she  said.  "  Without 
the  extra  pay  he  has  been  getting  they  will  have 
to  be  very  careful  for  a  time,  and  I  hear  everything 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  219 

in  Egypt  is  an  awful  price.  He  may  be  glad  to 
leave  Evangeline  and  the  boy  with  us  ;  I  hope  so." 

"'Oh,  poor  girl !  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Gainsborough, 
"  she  wouldn't  like  that." 

"  No,  of  course  it  would  be  a  dreadful  separation," 
Susie  agreed,  "  but  it  might  be  necessary  until  he 
got  something  else.  He  probably  would  very 
soon.  He  is  so  popular  with  everyone  and  so  high 
principled.  Anything  to  do  with  engineering  de- 
lights him,  and  I  should  think  there  must  be  a  great 
deal  of  that  sort  of  thing  going  on  everywhere  just 
now.  The  whole  world  is  making  an  effort  to 
better  everybody's  lives — except  ours,  of  course, 
who  have  to  pay  for  it.  But  one  doesn't  grudge 
that.  Personally  I  don't  mind  how  simply  I  live 
so  long  as  I  can  have  the  things  I  want." 

"  I  am  very  sorry  I  couldn't  come  and  hear  you 
speak  this  afternoon,"  said  Mrs.  Gainsborough. 
"  But  the  fact  is,  my  old  cook,  Annie,  is  being 
married  and  we  gave  her  a  little  send-off  from  here. 
She  has  married  such  a  nice  respectable  man — a 
widower — a  plumber  and  decorator ;  we  have 
known  him  for  years — a  man  of  the  name  of  Fisk. 
But  you  know  all  about  young  Fisk,  the  son  ? 
How  stupid  of  me  !  A  horrid  nuisance  he  is  and 
a  great  worry  to  his  father.  He  won't  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  poor  old  Annie.  Turns  up  his 
nose  at  her  altogether." 

"  How  horrid  of  him  !  "  said  Susie. 

"  Yes,  I  believe  he  thinks  we  arranged  it  all  as 
a  studied  insult  to  him  ;  vulgar  little  wretch  !  " 

"  You  will  miss  Annie,  won't  you  ?  "  said  Susie. 
"  She  has  been  with  you  such  a  long  time." 

"  Oh,  she  is  not  exactly  leaving  us,"  said  Mrs. 


220  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Gainsborough.  "  She  will  still  come  for  the  day 
about  eleven  o'clock  to  do  all  the  cooking,  and  she 
will  go  home  in  the  afternoon  to  give  her  husband 
his  tea  and  then  come  back  and  dish  up  the  dinner. 
You  see,  her  home  is  only  just  round  the  corner 
and  he  is  out  all  day  so  she  is  glad  of  the  company 
and  to  earn  the  extra  money.  I  fancy  young  Fisk 
takes  a  good  bit  of  what  his  father  makes." 

They  had  hardly  finished  dinner  when  the  maid 
handed  a  note  to  Susie.  The  girl,  she  said,  was 
waiting  for  an  answer.  It  was  from  Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  DEAR  MRS.  FULTON,"  it  said. 

"  You  told  me  you  are  dining  with  the 
Gainsboroughs.  I  wonder  if  you  would  have  time 
to  come  in  here  for  a  few  minutes  on  your  way 
home.  If  Teresa  is  tired  she  could  drop  you  and 
send  the  car  back  ?  I  have  heard  from  Evangeline 
by  the  last  post  with  some  reference  to  what  I 
suggested  to  you  this  afternoon.  She  is  sure  to 
have  written  to  you  at  the  same  time,  but  I  cannot 
answer  her  letter  without  consulting  you,  and  as 
you  are  always  so  busy  it  might  save  time  if  I  can 
catch  you  between  your  good  deeds." 

"  Would  you  ask  the  girl  to  tell  Mrs.  Vachell  I 
shall  be  very  glad  to  come  round  later,"  she  said 
to  the  maid  ;  then  she  turned  with  an  apology  to 
Mrs.  Gainsborough.  "  If  one  once  takes  up  these 
public  things  there  are  so  many  little  details  to 
think  out.  Mrs.  Vachell  wants  to  talk  over  one 
or  two  points  that  she  suggested  this  afternoon. 
I  will  send  Teresa  home  when  the  car  comes  in  case 
my  husband  wonders  what  has  become  of  us,  and 
it  can  come  back  for  me  to  Mrs.  VachelTs." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  221 

Mrs.  Vachell  was  alone  when  Susie  was  shown 
up.  "  My  husband  is  out  at  one  of  those  dreary 
men's  dinners  where  they  play  Bridge  till  all  hours," 
she  explained.  "  I  wanted  to  tell  you,  though  you 
are  sure  to  find  a  letter  from  Evangeline  when 
you  get  back,  that  there  seems  to  be  an  idea  that 
his  regiment  is  going  to  Egypt  and  he  will  probably 
have  to  go  with  them.  In  that  case  he  is  sure  to 
make  it  the  excuse  for  the  separation  I  told  you  of." 

"  But  surely  all  such  things  must  be  decided 
between  themselves,"  said  Susie.  "  Evangeline 
and  he  are  sure  to  talk  it  over  and  decide  what  is 
best  to  be  done." 

"  Mrs.  Fulton,  have  you  seen  your  son-in-law 
lately  ?  "  Mrs.  Vachell  asked,  looking  at  her  search- 
ingly.  "  Do  you  know  how  strongly  he  has  got 
to  feel  on  this  point  ?  I  have  been  down  there  for 
a  month  with  them  and  I  realised  that  Evangeline 
has  no  idea  what  an  obsession  it  has  become  with 
him.  He  seemed  to  want  to  pour  it  out  to  some- 
body and  you  know  yourself  how  a  man  always 
chooses  a  woman  to  listen  to  him  because  of  the 
very  qualities  he  despises  in  her — shall  we  call  it 
flexibility  of  judgment  ?  He  knows  she  is  not 
likely  to  say,  '  My  dear  chap,  that's  all  rot.  Have 
a  whiskey  and  soda  ?  ' 

"  That  is  so  true,"  said  Susie  with  a  sigh.  "  How 
well  I  know  it !  " 

"  You  understand  then  how  I  come  to  know 
more  of  his  intentions  than  you  do.  He  wouldn't 

feel  that  you  were  an  impartial  judge  and  also " 

her  mouth  twitched  slightly — "  I  am  afraid  he 
thinks  you  a  little — frivolous.  He  mistakes  your 
delicacy  of  thought  for  want  of  earnestness." 


222  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Yes,  I  daresa}',"  said  Susie,  slightly  stung,  "  I 
am  quite  used  to  being  thought  absurd  just  because 
there  is  so  much  in  spiritual  things  that  one  cannot 
explain  in  black  and  white.  Those  very  dogmatic 
people  always  seem  to  me  to  miss  the  whole  point 
of  everything." 

"  Well,  now,  the  question  is  this.  I  know — I 
tell  you  this  in  all  seriousness — I  know  what  he 
means  to  do  with  the  child  at  the  last  moment, 
and  the  last  moment  will  come  sooner  than  we 
expected  if  he  is  ordered  to  Egypt.  So  please  do 
dispossess  yourself  of  any  fancy  ideas  of  its  all 
blowing  over  or  all  coming  right.  What  can  you 
do  ?  You  will  probably  offer  to  take  Ivor  and 
Evangeline  too.  He  will  refuse  because  he  thinks 
you  are  even  worse  for  the  boy  than  she  is."  Susie 
betrayed  no  sign  of  anger,  but  her  eyes  narrowed 
a  little  and  there  was  no  dimple  in  her  cheek  as  she 
listened  attentively.  "  What  will  you  do  then  ?  " 
Mrs.  Vachell  went  on.  "  There  are  some  terrible 
women  he  knows  of  who  keep  a  school  away  down 
in  Cornwall.  I  don't  mean  that  they  are  inten- 
tionally cruel,  but  Ivor  has  your  sensitive  nature. 
He  is  a  little  boy  whom  you  might  as  well  whip 
with  a  cat-o'-nine-tails  as  send  to  women  like  that." 

Tears  sprang  to  Susie's  eyes  and  her  lips  trembled. 
"  I  will  do  anything  you  suggest,"  she  promised. 
"  I  don't  care  what  it  is.  I  think  I  could  almost 
kill  him.  Thank  heaven  he  trusts  you  !  " 

Mrs.  Vachell  laughed.  "  It  is  against  all  my 
principles  and  theories,"  she  said,  "  but  they  force 
us  to  do  these  things.  Some  day  when  we  are  in 
power  we  can  be  our  true  selves  and  enjoy  the 
luxury  of  the  straight  path.  At  present  we  lie 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  223 

for  the  children  and  the  women  like  Evangeline 
who  suffer  in  their  foolish  reverence  for  the  male. 
I  don't  know  what  you  advise,  but  I  don't  see  any 
better  way  out  of  it  than  that  Evangeline  should 
be  supposed  to  be  going  overland  to  join  him  and 
just  not  turn  up.  The  boy  will  be  left  with  me 
on  the  understanding  that  I  take  him  to  Cornwall 
as  soon  as  Evangeline  has  left  or  perhaps  a  month 
or  two  after." 

"  It  doesn't  sound  at  all  the  sort  of  thing  Evan 
would  do,"  said  Susie  doubtfully.  "He  is  always 
so  very  downright." 

"  No,  you  are  quite  right,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  He  hasn't  thought  of  it  yet.  He  has  only  got 
as  far  as  the  old  ladies.  But  I  can  make  him  see 
the  difficulty  of  a  scene  with  Evangeline.  She  is 
very  much  liked  at  Drage.  Evan's  Colonel  and 
his  wife  are  devoted  to  her.  There  would  be  awful 
talk  and  gossip  and  indignation  if  she  let  herself 
go  and  got  the  rest  of  them  down  on  to  it.  He  is 
secretive  and  hates  outside  interference." 

"  But  then  why  not  let  public  opinion  have  the 
chance  to  make  him  give  in  ?  "  asked  Susie. 

"  He  wouldn't  do  that.  He  would  make  some 
plan  for  a  temporary  arrangement  with  me  or 
someone  else  and  it  is  safer  that  it  should  be  with 
me." 

"  But  when  you  have  got  him  off,  what  next  ? 
The  school  will  be  expecting  him,  they  will  be 
furious  and  write  to  Evan  and  he  will  order  you  to 
give  up  Ivor.  He  may  send  a  solicitor's  letter. 
He  may  get  special  leave  and  come  back." 

"  That  he  couldn't  possibly  afford,"  said  Mrs. 
Vachell.  "  It  is  a  very  expensive  journey  just  now. 


224  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

And  as  for  the  solicitor's  letter — do  you  know  I 
am  not  at  all  sure  that  I  shouldn't  leave  that  to 
your  husband.  I  can't  tell  you  why,  but  I  think 
he  could  manage  Captain  Hatton  even  now  ;  the 
only  thing  is  that  he  wouldn't.  You  have  to  get 
things  into  a  mess  first  before  a  man  like  that  will 
move.  They  never  will  do  anything  to  prevent 
a  row  if  it  means  making  a  plan,  but  they  will 
shovel  away  the  mess  afterwards  quite  willingly." 

"  I  think  I  might  sound  him,"  said  Susie  re- 
flectively. 

"  Very  well,  but  remember  if  you  give  him  the 
least  hint  of  a  plan  he  will  forbid  you  to  do  it  and 
then  it  becomes  rather  a  nuisance  ;  it  would  be 
fifty  per  cent,  more  complicated.  If  you  do  the 
thing  first  you  can  pretend  to  be  sorry  and  say 
how  stupid  you  were  not  to  have  thought  of  the 
consequences.  A  man  will  always  swallow  that." 

Susie  changed  the  subject.  "  And  what  about 
Evangeline  ?  "  she  asked.  "  Shall  I  write  to  her  ?  " 
*  "  No,  indeed,  you  won't.  Don't  write  a  line 
except  the  usual  grandmotherly  stuff.  I  will  ring 
her  up  and  get  her  to  take  a  day's  shopping  in 
London ;  I  am  going  there  next  week.  Then 
after  that  I  will  go  on  to  Drage  to  see  a  young 
cousin  of  mine.  Evan  will  know  by  that  time 
whether  he  is  going  or  not.  If  he  does  I  can  per- 
suade him  to  lend  me  Ivor  for  a  month  or  two  or 
even  more.  Even  he  understands  that  he  is  rather 
a  baby  to  go  to  strangers  alone  and  he  is  sorry 

for  me  for  having  no  children •"  She  gave  a 

little  laugh.  "  You  might,  perhaps,  make  it  easier 
by  saying  that  you  want  to  have  Ivor  yourself,  but 
that  there  is  difficulty  about  the  nurse.  He  trusts 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  225 

her,  and   she   doesn't,    in    fact,    like    being    with 
you." 

"  Doesn't  she  ?  "  asked  Susie,  very  much  sur- 
prised. 

"  No,  not  at  all.  She  went  so  far  as  to  threaten 
to  give  notice  if  she  stayed  with  you  again.  She 
complains  that  you  spoil  Ivor." 

"  What  a  horrid  woman  !  "  said  Susie. 

"  Yes,  you  will  probably  have  to  get  another  in 
the  end.  But  all  that  will  be  much  simpler  when 
we  once  get  him  out  there.  It  is  difficult  for 
anyone  to  make  arrangements  with  such  a  long 
post  in  between." 

"  Dear  me,"  Susie  said  with  a  sigh,  "  it  is  all 
very  sad.  I  think  I  will  go  home  now.  There  may 
be  a  letter  from  Evangeline  and  I  can  see  what  my 
husband  says." 

"  Well,"  said  Cyril  when  she  came  back,  "  Dicky 
says  you  are  a  great  orator,  Sue.  Got  the  nail 
plumb  on  the  head  and  brought  tears  to  every 
eye.  I  sent  her  to  bed  as  she  looked  tired.  Strick- 
land said  she  was  going  to  bring  you  some  tea  as 
soon  as  you  came  in." 

"  Are  there  any  letters  for  me  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Yes,  I  believe  there  are.  I  put  them  down 
somewhere.  Evan  has  written  to  me  to  say  that 
the  regiment  is  going  to  Egypt  and  he  will  have  to 
go  unless  he  gets  anything  else." 

"  Is  he  likely  to  do  that  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  He  will  have  to  run  his  own 
show  now.  I  should  think  he  is  most  likely  to  go." 
Susie  found  her  letters  and  looked  through  them. 
There  was  nothing  from  Evangeline.  "  I  wonder 
why  she  writes  to  Mrs.  Vachell  and  not  to  me," 
r 


226  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

she  thought,  but  she  felt  no  jealousy ;  nothing 
more  than  a  little  surprise,  such  as  she  might  have 
felt  if  one  of  her  children  had  chosen  to  have  tea 
with  the  housemaid  instead  of  coming  down  to  the 
drawing-room. 

"  What  sort  of  a  country  is  Egypt  for  children  ?  " 
she  asked  presently  when  Strickland  had  brought 
the  tea. 

"  I've  never  been  there,  but  I  shouldn't  think 
it  was  very  good  for  them,"  said  Cyril. 

"  Wouldn't  it  be  the  best  plan  for  Ivor  to  stay 
with  us  and  have  a  governess  ?  "  she  suggested. 

"  Well,  I  suppose  that  is  for  Chips  to  settle." 

"  When  you  talk  of  her  settling  do  you  realise 
that  Evan  has  very  odd  views  about  children  and 
that  he  is  a  little  obstinate  sometimes  ?  " 

"  What  are  you  getting  at,  Sue  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  I  haven't  studied  the  insect  world  enough  to  be 
always  sure  what  particular  idea  you  are  after. 
If  you  will  tell  me  the  shape  of  twig  you  want  to 
resemble " 

"  I  haven't  an  idea  what  you  are  talking  about, 
Cyril,  but  I  was  asking  for  Evangeline's  sake.  You 
always  seem  to  understand  men  so  much  better 
than  I  do." 

"  That  is  because  they  say  what  they  mean," 
he  replied.  "  There  is  no  difficulty  about  that." 


Mrs.  Vachell  scarcely  recognised  Evangeline  when 
she  rose  out  of  a  corner  of  the  shop  lounge  where 
they  had  arranged  to  meet.  She  was  not  only 
thin  and  heavy-eyed,  but  she  looked  hunted. 
Behind  the  sphinx  face  that  looked  into  hers  bitter 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  227 

pity  was  hard  at  work.  "  My  dear  child,"  Mrs. 
Vachell  said,  holding  out  both  her  hands,  "  don't 
worry.  It  is  perfectly  all  right." 

"  But  you  don't  know,"  said  Evangeline  in  a 
low,  frightened  voice.  "  I  haven't  told  you.  He 
is  going  to  Egypt  and  insists  on  my  going  too. 
Ivor  is  to  be  sent  away "  Her  voice  broke. 

"  No,  no,  nonsense,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  Here, 
come  and  sit  down.  Ivor  isn't  going  away.  He 
will  be  sent  to  me  first  and  you  won't  go  on  the 
boat  at  all.  You  can  either  be  supposed  to  join 
him  at  Marseilles,  or  if  that  makes  too  much  fuss 
you  can  go  on  board  and  slip  off  among  the  crowd 
when  people  are  being  sent  ashore  at  the  last 
minute.  There  are  lots  of  ways  and  we  will  think 
out  the  best.  Once  he  is  safely  off,  you  will  go 
back  to  your  parents  and  he  will  find  the  devil  of 
a  difficulty  in  dislodging  you.  It  is  a  temporary 
remedy,  I  know,  but  we  shall  have  time  to  think 
of  something  else  when  the  next  obstacle  turns 
up.  He  is  one  man  against  three  women,  remem- 
ber. You  know  your  mother  by  this  time.  I  am 
not  sure  but  what  she  is  stronger  than  either  of 
us.  And  you  will  have  all  the  regiment  with  you 
if  they  get  to  know  of  it." 

"  But  Mother  doesn't  know,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  I  didn't  think  it  was  any  use  telling  her." 

"  Then  you  are  a  fool,  dear.  Never  mind ;  I 
have  told  her  ;  and  if  Evan  thinks  he  is  any  match 
for  her  he  is  mistaken.  He  might  as  well  try  to 
fight  a  climate." 

"  But  how  did  you  know  anything  about  it  ?  " 
she  asked,  more  and  more  puzzled.  "  He  only  told 
me  yesterday,  and  I  don't  know  now  where  he 


228  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

wants  to  send  Ivor.     It  may  be  to  his  sisters,  which 
is  bad  enough." 

"  I  knew  a  month  ago  what  he  intended  to  do 
some  day,  and  I  made  plans  for  you  as  soon  as  I 
heard  that  he  might  be  going  to  Egypt.  Don't 
waste  time  being  jealous  of  me,  Evangeline.  I 
would  wring  the  man's  neck  like  a  turkey's  if  I 
could." 

"  Oh,  you  are  wicked  !  "  gasped  Evangeline. 

"  No,  I  am  not.  Don't  be  stupid.  You  will 
lose  your  faith  in  men  too  some  day,  and  then 
you  won't  stick  at  anything  to  help  a  woman. 
What  other  weapons  have  we  to  defend  our  lives 
as  yet  ?  Do  you  want  Ivor  or  do  you  not  ?  " 

"  Do  I  ?  "  said  Evangeline,  nervously  hunting 
for  her  handkerchief.  "  I  didn't  sleep  last  night 
and  I've  had  no  breakfast." 

"  Very  well,  have  lunch  now,  then,"  said  Mrs. 
Vachell,  rising.  During  lunch  they  matured  their 
plan.  Evan  had  not  yet  explained  definitely  where 
he  intended  to  send  Ivor,  though  he  had  once 
mentioned  two  friends  of  his  mother's,  "  the  best 
women  in  the  world,"  he  called  them.  Mrs.  Vachell 
related  all  she  knew  of  the  place  where  they  lived 
and  their  methods  of  training  the  young  mind. 
Perhaps  she  exaggerated  and  perhaps  Evan  had 
laid  unfair  stress  on  the  items  he  was  most  anxious 
about.  "  They  believe  in  making  a  child  inde- 
pendent of  physical  comforts,"  she  said,  "  and  not 
allowing  a  light  in  the  room  at  night  and  that  sort 
of  thing." 

"  Oh,  God  !  Ivor  will  go  mad,"  said  Evangeline. 
"  He  is  so  good  about  the  dark  and  getting  used  to 
it,  but  he  hates  it — and  without  me  !  " 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  229 

Mrs.  Vachell  shrugged  her  shoulders.  "  I  came 
across  men  in  hospital,"  she  said,  "  to  whom  their 
childish  terrors  used  to  come  back.  Of  course  it 
made  them  able  to  stand  anything  as  they  grew 
up,  for  nothing  they  were  likely  to  meet  afterwards 
in  an  ordinary  life  could  be  such  torture.  But  it 
seems  a  little  like  burning  down  the  house  to  get 
roast  pig.  And,  after  all,  the  war  has  shown  that 
it  wasn't  worth  while,  because  boys  from  happy 
homes  were  just  as  undef eatable  as  the  children 
of  brutes.  In  fact  some  of  them  who  took  it  most 
simply  had  had  the  happiest  childhood.  Good 
schools  do  just  as  well  now  when  the  boys  come  by 
train  as  when  they  were  frozen  on  the  tops  of 
coaches  on  the  way  and  tortured  when  they  got 
there." 

"  Yes,"  said  Evangeline. 

"  I  shall  have  to  fool  your  husband  a  good  deal 
before  I  get  Ivor  handed  over  to  me,"  Mrs.  Vachell 
said,  looking  at  her  attentively. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind,"  Evangeline  answered  care- 
lessly. "  He  doesn't  love  the  real  you.  That  is 
the  only  thing  that  would  annoy  me."  Mrs. 
Vachell  gave  a  little  laugh. 

"  Who  says  women  can't  stick  together  or  tell 
the  truth  ?  "  she  said. 

"  Do  they  ?  "  said  Evangeline  with  indifference. 
"  I  wonder  why." 

"Well,  let's  get  on,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "I 
must  do  my  shopping  in  a  few  minutes.  I  shall 
come  to  Drage  next  week,  and,  in  the  meantime, 
just  behave  as  you  would  if  you  believed  it  was  all 
going  to  happen  as  he  says.  Try  to  forget  that  it 
isn't ;  and  when  I. come  you  will  find  that  the  old 


230  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

ladies  will  be  postponed  for  a  few  months  at  least. 
And  another  thing.  You  had  better  beg  for  Ivor 
to  be  sent  to  your  mother.  I  want  your  husband 
to  have  knocked  off  that  idea  before  I  come  or  I 
should  have  to  suggest  it  and  fail.  He  shall  tell 
you  himself  that  it  won't  do,  and  he  will  be  getting 
uneasy  about  the  old  duchesses  by  that  time  if 
you  are  tragic  enough." 

"  Oh,  it  is  beastly  !  "  said  Evangeline.  "  Hate- 
ful !  disgusting  !  How  can  a  man  be  so  mean  as 
to  force  his  wife  to  filthy,  low  tricks  to  keep  their 
only  son  with  her  while  he  is  a  baby  and  she  has 
done  nothing  wrong.  How  dare  he  do  it !  I  shall 
be  a  wicked  woman  before  he  has  done  with  me." 

Mrs.  Vachell  again  shrugged  her  shoulders. 
"  Wait,"  she  said,  "  it  is  coming.  There  can  be 
no  stopping  it  in  the  end.  We  are  in  Parliament ; 
we  are  almost  in  the  Law ;  we  have  one  foot  in 
the  Church.  Wait,  Evangeline,  my  dear.  And 
in  the  meantime  we  won't  throw  away  the  old 
weapons  till  the  new  are  ready.  They  haven't 
done  bad  service  in  the  past." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"  GOD  bless  you,"  said  Evan,  as  he  let  Mrs.  Vachell 
out  of  his  house  about  a  week  later.  "I'll  tell 
Evangeline  as  soon  as  she  comes  in.  It  is  an 
enormous  weight  off  my  mind,  really.  I  can't 
tell  you  what  torture  it  has  been  to  see  the  poor 
girl  in  that  state,  and  yet  it  was  my  duty.  I 
couldn't  do  otherwise,  so  it  had  to  be  gone  through. 
Now  she  will  be  comparatively  happy  as  she  will 
trust  Ivor  with  you  and  Mrs.  Fulton  can  see  him 
when  she  wants  to — within  limits.  Evangeline 
will  like  that.  I  have  the  utmost  confidence  in  the 
nurse  too.  I  should  never  have  sent  her  away  from 
him  if  it  had  been  possible  to  keep  him  at  home. 
I  have  written  to  Miss  Moseley  and  told  her  that 
his  coming  is  only  postponed  and  that  I  will  arrange 
with  her  later  when  you  see  how  he  gets  on." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "I  will  write  to 
you  every  week  or  so  at  first.  Good-bye.  You 
sail  on  the  30th,  don't  you  ?  I  suppose  I  can  make 
all  the  final  arrangements  about  trains  with  Evan- 
geline. She  will  like  to  see  him  settled  in  before 
she  goes,  perhaps,  and  it  will  give  her  time  to  pack 
and  settle  the  house  in  peace." 

Evan  had  refused  to  listen  to  the  suggestion  that 
Evangeline  should  pick  up  the  ship  anywhere  on  the 
way  out,  so  that  had  been  given  up.  Mrs.  Vachell 
had  undertaken  to  bring  off  the  final  coup.  Ivor 

231 


232  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

was  to  be  established  in  her  house  a  week  before  the 
ship  sailed.  Evangeline  was  to  pack  her  trunks 
as  much  as  possible  with  old  clothes  and  oddments 
that  she  did  not  need.  Evan  was  out  all  day,  so 
there  was  no  difficulty  about  that.  Mrs.  Vacheil 
would  get  permission  to  see  them  off  on  board,  and 
would  undertake  that  Evangeline  should  disappear 
when  the  shore  bell  rang.  An  errand  of  mercy 
in  some  lady's  cabin  would  prevent  Evan  from 
looking  for  her  until  some  time  after  the  ship  had 
left.  Mrs.  Vacheil  would  keep  him  in  discussion 
till  the  last  moment  and  tear  herself  away  only 
at  the  last  imperative  shouts  from  the  gangway. 
After  that  the  deluge,  and  Cyril  in  the  character 
of  Noah. 

"  I  don't  like  the  plan  at  all,"  Susie  said  anxiously, 
when  Mrs.  Vacheil  returned.  "  I  simply  don't  know 
how  I  shall  ever  make  my  husband  understand. 
He  is  quite  extraordinarily  dense  in  those  ways. 
And  I  want  to  tell  the  servants  to  get  Evangeline's 
room  ready,  and  of  course  I  can't.  There  are  all 
sorts  of  things  to  be  seen  to,  and  Strickland  will  be 
so  cross.  And  I  am  afraid  they  will  gossip,  too. 
Can't  you  possibly  think  of  anything  else  ?  Couldn't 
Evangeline  be  taken  ill  on  the  way  out  and  landed, 
and  then  she  could  just  come  home  ?  " 

"  I  am  afraid  that  soldiers  are  more  easily  deceived 
than  doctors,"  said  Mrs.  Vacheil,  "  and  Evangeline 
is  such  a  bad  actress  !  How  I  have  pulled  her 
through  this  week  I  don't  know.  But  I  can  keep 
Ivor  as  long  as  you  like  while  you  make  your  prepara- 
tions. When  Evangeline  comes  off  the  boat  and 
gets  to  you,  she  must  just  have  had  a  fit  of  temporary 
insanity  to  account  for  it  to  your  husband ;  a  sort  ot 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  233 

mad  motherhood.  I  understand  that  she  has  an 
excuse  for  a  certain  amount  of  eccentricity.  For 
that  reason  alone  any  doctor  can  be  got  to  say  that 
she  is  better  at  home." 

"  Well,  we  must  try  not  to  worry,"  said  Susie. 
"  I  daresay,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  that  by 
the  time  Evan  has  several  children  he  will  give 
up  a  great  deal  of  that  absurd  nonsense  about 
training.  The  children  themselves  will  make  him 
forget  about  it.  Marriage  does  away  with  so  many 
silly  fancies,  doesn't  it  ?  " 

All  the  same,  as  the  time  drew  near,  she  became  a 
trifle  restless.  One  day,  unknown  to  her,  Cyril 
went  to  have  a  tooth  out.  It  was  a  bad  tooth, 
and  he  felt  decidedly  uncomfortable  afterwards,  so 
he  telephoned  from  the  dentist's  house  to  put  off 
an  engagement  he  had  made,  and  went  straight 
home.  It  happened  to  be  the  afternoon  Susie  had 
chosen  for  a  box  containing  Evangeline's  belongings 
to  be  brought  to  the  house,  as  she  knew  Cyril  had  a 
train  journey  of  a  couple  of  hours,  which  would  keep 
him  out  of  the  way.  He  was  just  fitting  his  latch- 
key in  the  door  when  a  van  stopped  and  a  man 
got  out  and  touched  his  hat.  "  A  box  for  you,  sir," 
he  said,  "  would  you  sign,  please."  Another  man 
was  dragging  out  the  box  and  Cyril  took  the  paper 
and  read  it.  "  It  is  addressed  to  Mrs.  Hatton,"  he 
said.  "  Just  wait  a  minute  and  I'll  send  a  servant." 
Susie,  hearing  his  voice,  was  peeping  rather 
agitatedly  out  of  the  drawing-room  door.  He  rang 
the  front  door  bell  for  Strickland,  and  went  up- 
stairs. 

"  There's  a  man  with  a  box  addressed  to  Chips," 
he  remarked.  "Is  it  all  right  ?  " 


234  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Y-yes,  I  think  so,  dear,"  said  Susie.  "  It  is 
just  a  few  things  we  are  to  take  care  of,  that  she 
thought  might  spoil  in  Egypt.  Perhaps  I  had  better 
see  about  it.  Why  are  you  back  so  early  ?  " 

"  I  had  a  tooth  out,"  he  explained. 

"  Well,  really,  Cyril  dear,"  she  said  impatiently, 
"  how  you  men  do  fuss  about  every  little  ache  and 
pain.  What  would  you  say  if  we  gave  up, our  work 
for  as  little  reason  as  that  ?  " 

"  I  should  say  you  had  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent 
and  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove,"  he  replied.  "  It 
wouldn't  matter  a  row  of  beans."  He  went  off 
to  his  room. 

"  When  are  we  going  to  see  those  two  to  say 
good-bye  ?  "  he  asked  that  evening  after  dinner. 

"  They  will  be  coming  for  a  night  next  week  when 
they  take  Ivor  to  the  Vachells',"  said  Susie. 

"  I  still  don't  understand  why  he  is  being  sent 
there  instead  of  coming  to  us,"  he  observed. 

Susie  made  a  little  face.  "  It  is  just  Evan,"  she 
said.  "  He  thinks  we  are  not  to  be  trusted  with 
children.  Of  course  I  couldn't  insist." 

"  It  is  very  unlike  you,  Sue,  to  hand  over  one  of 
your  brood  without  a  murmur.  Does  Evangeline 
want  him  to  go  there  ?  " 

"  Certainly  not,"  said  Susie  unguardedly. 

"Well  then,  I  bet  he  won't  be  there  long," 
said  Cyril.  Susie  began  to  wonder  whether  this 
might  not  be  a  golden  opportunity  put  into  her 
hands. 

"  If  you  think  it  best  too,  dear,  I  am  not  sure  it 
mightn't  be  the  wisest  thing  to  move  him  here 
after  a  little  while,"  she  said.  Cyril  looked  at  her 
speculatively,  but  said  nothing  at  the  time.  When 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  235 

Evangeline  arrived  he  noticed  a  great  alteration  in 
her.  She  had  lost  her  easy-going  acceptance  of 
everything  that  was  said  and  done.  She  seemed 
anxious  and  analytical,  on  the  look-out  for  traps, 
chary  of  expressing  an  opinion.  She  had  said  good- 
bye to  Ivor,  she  told  them,  and  Evan  had  stayed 
behind  to  settle  a  few  last  details  with  Mrs.  Vachell. 
She  said  all  this  with  so  much  nervousness  and 
lack  of  interest,  as  if  repeating  a  lesson,  that  Cyril 
wondered  more  and  more.  He  thought  again  of  the 
box  that  had  arrived,  of  Susie's  embarrassment,  and 
her  anger  at  his  unexpected  return.  When  she 
went  in  the  afternoon  to  pay  her  fortnightly  visit 
to  a  women's  hospital  Cyril  asked : 

"  You're  not  acting  altogether  on  the  straight  about 
this  voyage,  are  you,  Chips  ?  What's  the  plot  ?  " 

Evangeline  pushed  back  her  chair  and  a  look  of 
terror  came  into  her  face.  She  hesitated,  but  said 
nothing.  He  looked  at  her  with  concern.  "  My 
dear  child,  I  am  not  going  to  eat  you,"  he  said. 
"  What's  the  matter  ?  " 

"  I  thought  perhaps  you  knew,"  she  stammered, 
without  realising  what  she  had  said. 

"  What,  that  your  mother  had  given  you  away  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  she  did,  though  she  didn't  mean  to.  She 
was  a  marvel  of  discretion,  but  unfortunately  I  had 
a  tooth  out  and  came  here  when  I  ought  to  have  been 
stowed  in  the  train,  and  I  met  your  luggage  on  the 
doorstep.  She  told  me  it  was  antiques  or  something, 
and  I  didn't,  in  fact,  think  much  about  it  until  you 
turned  up.  So  now  you  had  better  tell  me  what 
you  have  both  been  up  to.  It  is  quite  evident 
that  you  haven't  parted  from  Ivor.  How  do  you 


236  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

manage  that  ?  Are  you  going  to  take  him  as  a 
cargo  of  apples  or  what  ?  " 

"  No,  I  am  not  going,"  said  Evangeline.  "  I 
won't  go,  and  if  you  give  me  away,  I'll — no,  I  am 
sorry.  I  would  have  told  you  at  first,  but  Mother 
and  Mrs.  Vachell  said  that  men  will  only  help  to 
clear  up  a  mess.  They  won't  ever  make  a  plan  to 
prevent  it." 

"  Oh,"  said  Cyril,  "  so  the  plot  is  pretty  deep,  is 
it  ?  How  big  is  the  membership  ?  " 

"  Just  us  three,"  said  Evangeline. 

"  Not  Dicky  ?  " 

"  No,  no,  Dicky  is  impossible.  She  wouldn't 
give  it  away,  but  she  would  want  me  to  fight  it  out 
with  Evan.  But  I  can't,  Father, — I  can't,  I  can't. 
He  has  broken  my  nerve.  I  would  fight  for  myself, 
but  I  can't  risk  it  when  it  is  for  Ivor.  I  can't  afford 
to  lose.  It  is  Evan's  own  fault.  I  never  thought 
of  being  deceitful  until  I  met  him." 

"  And  Mrs.  Vachell  ?  "  added  Cyril. 

"  I  daresay,"  she  admitted,  "  but  she  doesn't 
want  to  any  more  than  I  do.  She  says  she  does  so 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  women  won't  have 
to  lie.  It  will  be  such  a  luxury." 

"  H'm,  yes,  perhaps,"  he  replied,  "  but  we  won't 
go  into  these  gilded  prospects  now.  She's  evidently 
still  in  a  very  poor  way.  But  if  you  don't  mind  me 
telling  you,  I  think  what  you  are  doing  is  very  risky, 
though  I  don't  exactly  know  what  it  is.  How  are 
you  going  to  get  off  ?  " 

"  Just  slip  off  the  boat  while  Mrs.  Vachell  is 
saying  good-bye  to  him.  He  is  to  suppose  that  I 
am  in  the  ladies'  cabin  looking  after  someone  who 
is  ill." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  237 

"  And  do  you  suppose  any  man  is  going  to  find 
out  that  his  wife  has  played  him  a  trick  like  that 
and  yet  go  on  with  his  voyage  and  stay  over  there  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Vachell  said  he  wouldn't  be  able  to  afford 
to  come  back,"  said  Evangeline. 

"  Good  God  !  What  a  fool  the  woman  is,"  he 
exclaimed.  "  And  she  and  her  pack  of  jelly-brained 
idiots  think  that — well,  well,  Chips  my  dear,  she 
is  not  too  big  a  fool  anyhow  to  have  properly  done 
poor  old  Evan.  She  must  have  endured  the  devil 
of  a  lot  of  self-denial  in  the  way  of  truth  lately.  A 
regular  Lent  of  corkers.  Chips,  I  really  don't 
advise  you  to  go  on  with  this.  It  is  all  nonsense  ; 
Evan  is  a  very  decent  sort  of  fellow  and  I  don't 
suppose  he  understands  in  the  least  that  he  is 
worrying  you  seriously.  I'll  tell  him  that  I  am 
going  to  keep  you  here  for  a  bit,  and  Ivor  too,  to 
keep  you  company,  and  that  we'll  think  out  a 
scheme  later  for  you  to  go  out  there  when  he  has 
got  ready  for  you.  He  can't  object,  for  I  don't  think 
you  are  well." 

"  No,  I  am  not,"  said  Evangeline,  and  she  burst 
into  tears.  "  I  am  going  to  have  another,  and 
I  know  he  will  take  it  away,  too,  and  I  shall  go 
mad " 

"  Oh,  rot !  "  said  Cyril  kindly.  "  Here,  buck  up. 
You're  not  going  if  you  don't  want  to.  Why  on 
earth  didn't  you  talk  over  this  mess  before  ? 

There "  (the  front  door  bell  rang)  "  that's 

probably  the  heavy  father  coming  on  the  stage 
now." 

"  Father,"  said  Evangeline,  turning  white,  "  don't 

tell  him "  She  fell  forward  in  her  chair  and 

fainted,  and  at  the  same  moment  Evan  came  in. 


238  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Here,"  said  Cyril  holding  her,  "  go  down, 
there's  a  good  fellow,  and  get  some  brandy  ;  there's 
some  in  the  dining-room."  Evan  raced  down  and 
brought  back  the  decanter  and  a  glass,  and  between 
them  they  did  their  best,  lifting  her  on  to  the  sofa, 
and  Evan  tried  to  make  her  swallow  some  of  the 
brandy.  She  opened  her  eyes  and  looked  at  him 
with  terror,  and  then  sat  up.  "  What  is  it  ?  "  she 
asked.  "  Oh  please,  please,  Evan,  don't  take  him 
away.  I  will  do  anything  you  like." 

"  Don't  take  who  away,  my  darling,  I  don't  know 
what  you  mean  ?  "  he  said. 

"  Here,  never  mind,"  said  Cyril.  "  It's  all  right, 
Chips.  We'll  get  you  put  to  bed  I  think,  and, 
there's  nothing  to  worry  about ;  do  you  under- 
stand ?  "  He  rang  the  bell  for  Strickland,  and  she 
came  in  and  stood  gazing  at  them  in  surprise  and 
disapproval. 

"  Mrs.  Hatton  isn't  well,"  said  Cyril.  "  A  little 
influenza  or  something.  Will  you  get  her  room 
ready  and  put  her  to  bed  ?  Can  you  walk  so  far, 
Chips,  if  we  give  you  a  hand  ?  "  They  left  her  in 
the  bedroom  with  Strickland,  and  then  Cyril  faced 
his  son-in-law  in  the  drawing-room. 

"  I  think  I'll  telephone  for  a  doctor,"  he  said, 
"  just  to  make  sure  she's  all  right.  Mix  yourself 
a  drink  while  I  look  the  fellow  up."  He  found 
the  number  and  took  up  the  receiver.  "  That 
Doctor  Clark  ?  "  he  said.  "  Oh,  isn't  he  ?  Well 
would  you  ask  him  to  come  round  to  Mrs.  Fulton's 
house  as  soon  as  he  comes  in.  Now  then,  Evan," 
he  went  on,  while  he  lit  a  pipe,  "  let's  have  this 
out.  You  mustn't  take  the  girl  away  to  Egypt 
just  yet.  She's  all  to  bits  and  she's  got  a  holy  terror 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  239 

of  you  for  some  reason.  What  have  you  been 
doing  ?  " 

"  I  am  afraid  it  has  been  parting  from  the  boy 
that  has  upset  her,"  said  Evan.  "  But  I  considered 
very  carefully  before  I  did  it,  and  I  am  quite  sure  it 
is  the  only  way." 

"  Only  way  to  what  ?  "  asked  Cyril. 

"  The  only  way  to  safeguard  him  from  being 
ruined  by  weakness  and  self-indulgence." 

"  It  won't  do  him  any  harm  to  speak  of  for  a  year 
or  two,"  said  Cyril,  "  and  then  he'll  go  to  school  and 
get  it  put  straight.  You'll  do  him  far  more  harm 
where  you've  left  him  at  present  with  that  un- 
scrupulous she-devil  of  the  Nile.  Take  her  back 
with  you  on  the  spare  ticket  and  drop  her  whence 
she  came." 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,"  Evan  said,  getting  up.  "  I 
can't  listen  to  any  abuse  of  Mrs.  Vachell.  I  am 
sorry  Evangeline  has  sunk  to  that  last  resort 
of  slandering  her  best  friend  to  achieve  her 
end." 

"  Evangeline  didn't  slander  her,  my  dear  boy," 
said  Cyril.  "  She  was  full  of  her  praises  because  of 
the  magnificent  plan  she  had  devised  for  deceiving 
you.  I  arrived  home  unexpectedly  a  few  days  ago 
and  met  Evangeline's  box  on  the  doorstep.  The 
plan  was  that  Cleopatra  was  to  beguile  you  at  one 
end  of  the  deck  while  Evangeline  nipped  off  down 
the  gangway  and  home.  They  had  a  plan  all 
thought  out  about  her  ministering  to  a  sick  friend 
in  a  distant  cabin  so  that  you  wouldn't  look  for 
her  until  you  were  well  out  at  sea.  Ivor  was  to 
join  her  here  then,  and  after  that  I  don't  think  they 
had  any  clear  idea,  but  they  were  reckoning  on 


240  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

your  finding  it  cheaper  to  stay  where  you  were 
and  storm  at  them  on  paper." 

Evan's  face  looked  hard  and  worn,  but  he  showed 
no  other  sign  of  disappointment.  "  I  think  I  had 
better  go  now  and  ask  Mrs.  Vachell  if  it  is  true,"  he 
said.  '  You  know  I  have  only  just  come  from  her, 
and  we  made  an  arrangement  that  Ivor  should 
stay  with  her  for  two  or  three  months  and  then  go  to 
some  ladies  whom  my  mother  knew  in  Cornwall ; 
they  keep  a  small  school  for  very  young  children 
whose  parents  are  abroad." 

"  Did  Chips  know  of  that  further  arrangement  ?  " 
asked  Cyril. 

"  Not  unless  Mrs.  Vachell  told  her." 

"  Why  not  ?  What  sort  of  a  fellow  do  you  think 
you  are,  making  plans  with  another  woman  behind 
your  wife's  back  as  to  what  you  will  do  with  your 
son  while  she  is  away  ?  " 

"  It  was  the  only  way,"  said  Evan  again. 

"  The  only  way  to  land  yourself  in  the  devil  of  a 
mess.  Upon  my  word,  Evan,  it's  a  pretty  beastly 
sort  of  thing  to  do.  If  it  got  round  to  the  mess 
you'd  find  yourself  up  against  a  devilish  hard 
proposition." 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  said  Evan.  "  It  was  cowardice. 
I  hate  hurting  a  woman  if  it  can  be  avoided." 

"  Funny  how  people  deny  themselves  in  little 
ways,"  Cyril  said  reflectively.  "  There  you  say 
you  hate  hurting  a  woman,  and  you  go  a  long  way 
round  to  find  a  plan  that  must  hurt  her  more  than 
anything  you  could  have  chosen.  Evangeline  told 
me  that  Mrs.  Vachell  hates  lying  more  than  anything, 
and  she " 

"  Excuse  my  interrupting  you,  sir,"  said  Evan 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  241 

rising.  "  That  is  not  quite  proved  yet.  I'll  be 
back  in  half-an-hour." 

Cyril,  from  the  window,  saw  him  rush  after  a 
passing  tram  and  board  it  with  the  expression  of 
the  Chief  of  Police  in  a  cinema  drama.  "  Poor 
devil !  "  he  said  to  himself  with  amusement.  "  She's 
going  to  catch  it." 

Mrs.  Vachell's  little  maid  was  greatly  surprised 
when  the  gentleman  whom  she  had  let  out  of  the 
house  not  long  before  brushed  past  her  with  some 
muttered  remark  when  she  opened  the  door,  and 
ran  straight  up  to  the  drawing-room,  where  her 
mistress  was  having  tea.  Mr.  Vachell  had  returned 
from  the  University  and  was  enjoying  himself 
with  a  muffin.  Evan  greeted  him  hurriedly,  and 
said  to  Mrs.  Vachell,  "  Can  I  speak  to  you  a  moment 
alone  ?  " 

"  No,  my  dear  Evan,  I  don't  think  you  can  with 
that  face,"  she  said,  looking  at  him  coldly,  "  you 
almost  frighten  me.  Sit  down  there  and  have  some 
tea,  and  tell  us  what  is  the  matter.  Ivor  is  quite 
happy  having  his  upstairs." 

"  He  must  pack  up  now  and  come  with  me,  unless 
you  can  contradict  what  I  have  just  been  told,"  said 

Evan.  "  But  I  know  you  will "  his  voice  was 

almost  beseeching.  "  Evangeline  is  ill.  She  fainted 
and  went  to  bed,  and  I  think  she  is  a  little  light- 
headed. She  assured  her  father  that  you  had  made 
a  plan  to  let  her  slip  off  the  boat  as  it  was  starting 
and  to  join  Ivor  here  and  take  him  to  her  father's 
house "  he  paused  anxiously. 

"  Yes,  it  is  quite  true,"  she  said  without  concern. 
"  It  evidently  isn't  coming  off  now  as  Evangeline 
has  gone  back  on  it.  Still  I  think  she  might  have 
Q 


242  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

warned  me.  It  is  all  the  same  to  me  what  she  does, 
but  it  is  generally  considered  not  to  be  playing  the 
game  to  do  that  sort  of  thing." 

"  Why  did  you  do  it  ?  "  asked  Evan. 

"  Because  it  was  the  only  way  to  stop  your 
monstrous  behaviour  to  a  woman  and  her  child. 
I  would  have  done  it  for  anybody."  Mr.  Vachell 
had  taken  no  part  in  what  was  going  on,  but  was 
quietly  proceeding  with  his  tea. 

"  Did  you  know  of  this  ?  "  Evan  asked,  turning 
to  him. 

"  Of  course  not,"  he  replied.     "  Is  it  likely  ?  " 

"  Of  course  he  didn't,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  It 
had  nothing  to  do  with  him.  But  he  wouldn't 
have  interfered  in  any  case.  We  are  a  normal 
husband  and  wife  ;  not  a  potentate  and  his  slave." 

"  Then  would  you  ring  for  Ivor  and  his  nurse  to 
get  ready,  please,"  said  Evan. 

"  Where  are  you  going  to  take  him  ?  "  she  in- 
quired. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  but  that  is  no  business  of 
yours." 

"  Very  well,  then,  wait  a  moment  please."  She 
took  up  the  telephone  from  a  table  beside  her  and 
asked  for  the  Fultons'  number.  Cyril  answered  it. 
"  Is  that  you,  General  Fulton  ?  "  she  said.  "  Cap- 
tain Hatton  wishes  to  take  Ivor  away  at  once  and 
will  not  tell  me  where  he  is  taking  him  to.  The 
little  boy  has  hardly  had  his  tea  and  is  tired  after 
the  journey.  Would  you  mind  telling  me  what 
to  do."  Emphatic  sounds  were  audible  from  the 
mouth-piece,  and  she  turned  to  Evan.  "  He  says 
I  am  to  tell  you  not  to  be  a  damned  fool  but  to  go 
round  there  at  once.  Your  wife  is  very  ill.  You 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  243 

are  to  leave  the  child  here  for  the  present.  What 
did  you  say,  General  Fulton  ?  Do  you  want  to 
speak  to  him  ?  "  She  got  up  and  gave  her  place  to 
Evan.  "  Yes — hullo,"  he  said.  "  Is  that  you,  sir  ? 
What's  the  matter,  please, — very  well — I  will 
come."  He  said  good-bye  to  neither  of  the  Vachells, 
but  stopped  at  the  door.  "  I  should  like  Ivor  and 
the  nurse  sent  to  General  Fulton's  as  early  as  you 
conveniently  can  to-morrow,"  he  said,  and  went 
downstairs. 

"  Good  heavens  !  what  idiots  !  "  said  Mrs. 
Vachell,  pouring  herself  out  another  cup  of  tea, 
when  he  was  gone.  "  It  is  very  difficult  to  do  good 
in  this  world." 

"  I  know  you  don't  want  my  advice,"  said  Mr. 
Vachell,  "  so  I  won't  give  it.  But  I  am  sorry  there 
has  been  such  a  mess  and  she  is  ill.  I  like  the  poor 
girl  and  she  seems  to  have  had  a  bad  time  one  way 
and  another.  Little  Teresa  will  be  hitting  out 
right  and  left  I  expect." 

"  Oh,  Teresa !  "  his  wife  said  contemptuously, 
"  is  full  of  old-fashioned  prejudices,  and  her  idea  of 
equality  between  human  beings  doesn't  go  beyond 
incomes." 

"  If  people  would  study  the  way  things  have 
worked  out  in  the  past  they  would  get  a  better  idea  of 
what  is  likely  to  happen  in  the  future,"  he  observed. 
"  I  think  I  must  go  down  and  do  a  little  work," 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

"  THERE  is  certainly  no  question  of  her  going  to 
Egypt  just  yet,"  said  the  doctor  when  he  came 
downstairs.  "  She  seems  to  have  got  a  sort  of 
nervous  breakdown.  Can  you  account  for  it  hi  any 
way  ?  " 

Susie  had  come  home  just  before  he  arrived,  and 
was  apparently  greatly  fluttered  by  the  scene  of 
confusion  that  she  found,  but,  in  fact,  she  was 
secretly  rejoiced.  "  It  clears  the  whole  thing  up  in 
the  most  wonderful  way,"  she  thought.  "  Really 
it  almost  seems  as  if  Providence  did  interfere  some- 
times." She  came  into  the  drawing-room  with  the 
doctor  and  found  Cyril  and  Evan  talking  with 
perfect  friendliness.  She  put  them  both  down  in 
her  thoughts  as  "  extraordinarily  lacking  in  all 
feeling,"  but  she  expressed  nothing  but  cheerful 
propriety. 

"  Really  I  don't  know,"  she  said,  hi  answer  to  the 
doctor's  question.  "  Evan,  Dr.  Clark  wants  to 
know  whether  you  can  account  for  Evangeline 
having  broken  down  like  this.  You  were  here  with 
her,  Cyril,  when  it  happened.  Do  either  of  you 
know  of  anything  ?  "  Both  were  silent,  waiting 
for  the  other  to  speak.  "  Well  ?  "  said  Susie  im- 
patiently. "  You  see,  I  have  been  out,  and  she 
seemed  to  be  all  right  when  she  arrived." 

"  I  think  it  had  to  do  with  her  leaving  Ivor 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  245 

behind,"  said  Cyril  at  last.  "  Really,  my  dear,  you 
are  a  mother ;  you  ought  to  understand  these 
feelings.  She  was  about  to  sail  on  a  long  voyage, 
remember." 

Susie  blushed.  "  There  has  been  the  move  too,  of 
course,"  she  said  to  the  doctor.  "  Everything  was 
arranged  in  a  great  hurry  and  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  packing  up ;  and  as  she  told  you,  she  is  not 
strong  just  now." 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  there's  that.  But  I  should  have 
thought  there  was  more  in  it.  However,  it  is  not 
my  affair,  and  if  it  is  a  family  matter  you  must  do 
as  you  like.  But  whatever  it  is  must  be  put  right 
somehow,  or  you  may  have  very  serious  con- 
sequences to  deal  with.  I  will  come  back  to- 
morrow morning,  unless  you  want  me  before  then. 
But  please  try  to  set  her  mind  at  rest  on  whatever 
it  is  that  is  worrying  her.  It  would  be  much  better 
if  you  had  a  trained  nurse." 

"  Little  Ivor's  nurse  is  a  splendid  woman,"  said 
Susie.  "  She  has  had  a  hospital  training,  and 
Evangeline  is  used  to  her.  Do  you  think  she  could 
manage  ?  " 

"  No,  I  think  not,"  he  said.  "  She  seems  to  be 
worrying  about  the  child  as  it  is.  Have  him  in  the 
house  with  her  and  let  her  know  he  is  within  reach 
with  his  own  nurse,  and  I'll  send  you  round  another 
woman,  if  you  don't  mind." 

Evangeline  slept  that  evening  under  the  influence 
of  some  medicine  the  doctor  ordered,  and  Cyril 
and  Evan  were  left  alone  after  dinner,  while  the 
household  were  carrying  out  the  numerous  require- 
ments of  the  nurse  and  preparing  another  couple  of 
rooms  for  Ivor. 


246  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

It  had  been  decided  that  Evan  must  sail  with  his 
regiment,  but  so  far  nothing  had  been  said  about 
Ivor's  future.  Presently  Cyril  remarked,  "  We  had 
better  settle  now  about  the  boy,  Evan.  It  looks 
pretty  clear  to  me  that  you  have  got  to  wait  for 
him  to  find  his  level  in  the  ordinary  way  at  a  pre- 
paratory school.  There  aren't  many  years  to  wait, 
and  I  can  promise  you  that  there  will  be  nothing 
morbid  about  him  so  long  as  he  is  under  my  roof. 
You  see,  if  I  had  had  a  son  I  should  have  had  to 
check  his  tendencies  and  all  that,  and  he  will  quite 
likely  mind  what  I  say  more  than  he  would  the  old 
women  of  Cornwall." 

"  I  shall  make  no  inquiries,"  said  Evan.  "  Since 
his  mother  and  I  cannot  act  together,  and  it  seems 
that  I  shall  be  responsible  for  her  illness  if  we  act 
separately,  I  shall  withdraw  altogether.  I  will  send 
her  all  the  money  I  have  beyond  what  I  need  for 
bare  necessities,  and  she  has  your  very  generous 
allowance.  I  don't  imagine  she  will  miss  me  at  all 
out  of  her  life.  Everything  has  been  as  wretched  as 
it  could  be  for  the  last  year  or  two." 

"  I  think  you  will  probably  find  you  want  them 
both  back  again  by  and  bye,"  said  Cyril.  "  My 
wife  would  tell  you,  I  am  sure,  that  absence  makes 
the  heart  grow  fonder — which  reminds  me  that  I 
very  much  hope  that  is  true.  However,  don't  let's 
take  it  for  granted  that  all  is  over  and  Moab  is  our 
wash-pot,  and  so  on.  It  is  wonderful  how  things 
peter  out  if  you  leave  them  alone." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Evan  gloomily,  "  but  I  am 
afraid  not.  What  is  wrong  in  the  beginning  is 
wrong  in  the  end.  I  shall  go  away  to-morrow 
before  the  boy  arrives.  He  is  not  likely  to  ask 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  247 

after  me  much,  as  he  was  set  against  me  from  the 
beginning." 

"  Have  a  drink  before  you  go  up,"  said  Cyril, 
as  Evan  rose  from  his  chair.  "  I  am  sure  you  had 
better."  Ten  minutes  later  they  were  absorbed  in 
a  discussion  about  Egyptian  administration,  but 
Evan  remained  gloomy. 

When  Strickland  brought  his  breakfast  next 
morning  she  asked  whether  he  had  seen  Mrs.  Hatton, 
and  how  was  she  ? 

"  I  didn't  disturb  her,"  he  answered,  "  but  the 
nurse  came  to  the  door  and  told  me  she  was  better." 

"  I  think  Mrs.  Fulton  will  be  down  in  a  few 
minutes,  sir,"  said  Strickland,  hesitating  at  the  door. 
She  liked  Evan,  who  was  always  gravely  considerate 
to  the  maids  and,  as  she  once  said  to  the  cook, 
"  never  passes  us  with  his  hat  on."  "  I  may  be 
gone  before  then,"  said  Evan,  "  but  if  so,  please 
tell  her  I  was  sorry  to  go  without  saying  good-bye. 
I  have  several  things  to  do  on  the  way  to  the  station." 
Teresa  ran  down  just  as  he  was  putting  on  his  coat. 

"  Oh  Evan,  were  you  going  without  saying  good- 
bye ?  Wouldn't  you  like  to  see  Chips  ?  " 

"  No,  Dicky,  I  must  be  off,"  he  said.  "  Will  you 
write  and  tell  me  how  she  is  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  will,  and  Ivor  too,"  she  promised.  "  I 
wish  you  were  not  going  so  early  and  so  far  off. 
You  look  so  bleak.  But  it  won't  be  long  before 
Chips  can  go  out  to  you." 

"  Dicky,"  he  said,  stopping  with  his  hand  on  the 
door,  "  don't  say  anything  about  Ivor  when  you 
write.  I  would  rather  not  hear.  But  do  what 
you  can  for  him — and  if  you  marry,  have  him  with 
you  sometimes,  will  you  ?  "  He  gave  her  a  kiss 


248  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

and  went  out,  and  she  watched  him  call  a  cab 
from  the  rank  across  the  road  and  drive  off.  She 
was  standing  there  still  when  Strickland  came  to 
shut  the  door. 

"  I  don't  like  the  Captain  going  off  like  that," 
Strickland  said,  when  they  were  back  in  the  dining- 
room  and  she  was  clearing  away  the  plates  and  cup. 
"  It  doesn't  seem  right  somehow." 

"  I  wonder  what  there  is  about  marriage  that  is 
so  difficult,"  said  Teresa  sadly.  "  People  nearly 
always  behave  queerly  after  a  bit.  Even  if  they 
don't  actually  quarrel  they  call  each  other  '  dear  ' — 
rather  short — and  say  '  it  doesn't  matter,  thank 
you,'  and  dreary  things  like  that." 

"  I  think,  myself,  better  have  a  quarrel  and  have 
done  with  it,"  said  Strickland.  "It  is  a  mistake 
to  think  over  things  too  much.  If  a  woman  is  busy 
all  day  working  she's  no  time  to  bother  about  the 
man  till  it  comes  to  getting  his  wages  off  him,  and 
then  it's  best  to  be  civil." 

"  But,  my  dear,  it  is  worse  in  working  men's 
houses,"  said  Teresa.  "  If  you  counted  up  the 
quarrels  between  husbands  and  wives  in  some  of 
those  small  streets  !  " 

"  Quarrels,  yes,  Miss,  that's  what  I  said,"  Strick- 
land replied.  "  But  I  thought  you  were  speaking 
of  Captain  Hatton  going  off  so  cold  this  morning, 
and  no  one  able  to  say  exactly  what  has  happened." 

Susie  came  in  at  that  moment  and  dismissed 
Strickland  with  a  rather  reproving  request  for 
breakfast  at  once.  When  the  door  was  shut  she 
said  to  Teresa,  "  I  do  hope  the  maids  haven't  begun 
gossiping  about  Evangeline  already.  What  was 
Strickland  saying  ?  " 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  249 

"  We  were  talking  about  marriage  and  wondering 
why  it  is  so  difficult,"  said  Teresa.  "  She  was  sorry 
Evan  had  gone  off  so  drearily." 

"  Oh,  has  he  gone  !  "  Susie  exclaimed.  "  Really 
he  ought  not  to  have  done  that.  They  will  think  all 
sorts  of  absurd  things,  and  now  there  is  that  nurse 
to  gossip  with.  You  really  encourage  them  some- 
times, dear  Dicky,  by  talking  about  a  thing  instead 
of  pretending  there  is  nothing  to  notice." 

"  But  I  didn't  know  there  was  anything  the 
matter,  except  that  Chips  was  ill,"  said  Teresa  in 
astonishment.  "  I  was  talking  to  Strickland  about 
married  people's  manner  to  each  other.  What  has 
happened  ?  " 

"  Evan  made  a  very  foolish  and  cruel  plan  to 
send  poor  little  Ivor  to  a  strict  school  in  the  furthest 
part  of  Cornwall.  There  was  no  persuading  him, 
so  Evangeline  very  wisely  took  the  whole  thing  out 
of  his  hands." 

"  How  ?  "  asked  Teresa.  "  What  could  she  do  if 
he  wouldn't  do  what  she  wanted  ?  " 

"  Well  you  will  find,  dear,  some  day,"  said  Susie, 
"  that  when  a  man  is  bent  on  doing  what  is  wrong 
the  only  way  is  to  seem  as  if  it  was  all  to  go  on  as 
he  says  and  then  trust  to  Providence  to  find  some 
way  of  stopping  it  when  the  time  comes.  Opposition 
only  makes  him  more  determined,  and  he  is  more 
likely  to  take  precautions." 

"  I  thought  it  was  arranged  by  Evan  and  every- 
body that  Ivor  was  to  go  to  Mrs.  VachelTs." 

"  That  was  Evan's  own  silly  arrangement,  cer- 
tainly, and  Mrs.  Vachell  agreed  just  for  the  sake  of 
putting  off  the  dreadful  school  time.  And  now 
you  see,  mercifully  the  doctor  says  that  Evangeline 


250  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

must,  on  no  account,  be  worried,  so  darling  Ivor 
is  to  come  here  after  all,  as  he  ought  to  have  in  the 
first  place,  and  everything  is  all  right.  It  is  wonder- 
ful how  things  work  out  if  only  one  has  trust." 

"  But  then,  I  don't  see  what  you  are  afraid  of  the 
maids  knowing,  and  why  Evan  is  so  cold,"  said 
Teresa,  very  puzzled. 

"  Well,  of  course  Evan  wasn't  pleased  with  the 
alteration  of  plan.  You  couldn't  expect  him  to  be. 
And  Evangeline  has  got  so  ill  with  the  anxiety. 

If  she  had  only  trusted  to  it's  coming  out  right . 

But  she  got  run  down  and  worried,  and  what  with 
one  thing  and  another,  she  didn't  want  to  see  Evan 
or  to  hear  any  more  discussion,  and  I  thought  the 
maids  would  think  it  so  odd.  You  know  how  in 
that  class  everything  is  sacrificed  to  the  man  because 
he  has  the  money,  and  they  don't  understand  any- 
thing between  a  difference  of  opinion  and  actual 
quarrelling." 

"  I  see,"  said  Teresa  thoughtfully. 

"  I  wouldn't  talk  to  Evangeline  about  it,  I  think, 
dear,"  said  Susie  after  a  pause.  "  The  doctor  says 
she  must  be  kept  very  quiet." 

Later  in  the  morning  Evangeline  asked  for  Teresa 
to  come  up  to  her  room.  She  was  in  bed,  looking 
white  and  tired  and  the  nurse  was  quietly  dusting. 

"  Wouldn't  you  like  some  tea,  Nurse  ?  "  Evange- 
line suggested.  "  Strickland  is  sure  to  be  making 
some  if  it  is  eleven  o'clock." 

"  I  don't  mind  leaving  you  for  half  an  hour  if  that 
is  what  you  want,"  said  the  nurse  with  a  smile. 
"  But  don't  talk  about  any  worries,  there's  a  dear, 
or  you  will  get  your  temperature  up  again.  You'll 
not  let  her  tire  herself,  will  you  ?  "  she  said  to 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  251 

Teresa.  "  And  I'll  leave  this  little  bell  here  in  case 
you  want  anything." 

"  Everything  is  quite  all  right,  you  know,"  she 
said  soothingly,  as  she  arranged  the  bedclothes 
before  departing.  "  Your  husband  sent  you  his 
best  love  when  he  went  off  this  morning,  only  you 
were  asleep  and  he  wouldn't  disturb  you.  And 
everything  is  ready  for  the  little  boy  when  he  comes. 
He  will  be  pleased  to  see  his  Mummy  again,  won't 
he?" 

"  Oh  yes,  yes,"  said  Evangeline,  "it  is  all  right. 
Do  go  and  get  your  tea,  Nurse ;  we  won't  do  any- 
thing." 

"  Well,  did  you  see  him  ?  "  she  asked  eagerly, 
when  the  nurse  had  gone. 

"  Yes,  I  did.  He  was  very  nice  about  you.  He 
asked  me  to  write  and  tell  him  how  you  are,  and  I 
said  I  would." 

"  Forgive  me,  Dicky,  for  not  telling  you  what 
I  meant  to  do,"  said  Evangeline.  "  But  I  knew  it 
would  make  you  miserable,  and  I  couldn't  stand 
discussion." 

"  I  don't  mind  that  a  bit,"  she  answered,  "  but 
if  you  get  into  a  mess  again,  Chips,  do  tell  Father. 
I  think  Mother's  way  of  deceiving  men  on  principle  is 
a  mistake,  apart  from  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong. 
I  think  you  could  have  got  Evan  to  do  anything 
you  liked  if  you  had  told  Father,  because,  after  all, 
it  was  quite  reasonable,  only  I  expect  he  didn't  in 
the  least  understand.  You  told  me  once  that  if 
you  want  to  make  him  see  your  side  of  the  argument 
you  have  to  translate  it  into  different  terms,  because 
lie  uses  other  ways  of  expressing  the  same  things. 
You  see,  Father  would  probably  have  used  very 


252  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

bad  language  and  said  that  the  school  Evan  wanted 
was  kept  by  a  lot  of  damned  tea-drinking,  blanketty- 
blank-I-don't-know-what's,  and  then  Evan  would 
have  understood  that  it  wasn't  really  a  good  plan." 

"  Well,  it  is  done  now  and  he  is  gone,"  said  Evange- 
line.  "  I  shall  never  see  him  again.  I've  deceived 
him  and  that  is  the  end.  But  if  he  hadn't  told  Mrs. 
Vachell  what  he  meant  to  do  I  should  never  have 
found  out.  I  knew  nothing  about  the  school  until 
she  told  me." 

"  Didn't  you !  Oh,  Chips,  how  horrid !  But 
then,  he  must  have  deceived  you,  too,  so  it  is  rather 
like  what  Mother  says  about  being  '  taught  to  be 
wicked.'  It  is  so  odd  if  you  come  to  think  of  it  that 
what  she  says  should  really  come  true,  perhaps  for 
the  first  time  ;  though  it  is  too  near  the  bone  to  be 
so  funny  as  it  might  be." 

"  Do  you  know,  I  never  thought  of  that,"  Evange- 
line  remarked,  "  but,  of  course  he  did.  That  makes 
it  a  lot  better." 

"  No  it  doesn't.  It  doesn't  make  any  difference 
either  way.  But,  at  least,  you  can  both  say  you 
are  sorry  and  start  again." 

"  But  Dicky,  I  didn't  tell  you — there  is  going  to 
be  a  new  one,  and  then  everything  will  begin  all 
over  again.  I  could  perhaps  have  held  out  until 
Ivor  goes  to  school  in  the  ordinary  way,  which  of 
course  I  want  him  to,  and  after  that  he  will  be  able 
to  look  after  himself  ;  but  I  can't  go  through  it  all 
with  another."  Her  eyes  looked  large  and  startled. 

"  But  he  hasn't  done  Ivor  any  harm,"  Teresa 
protested,  "  and  he  will  see  by  and  by  that  he  is  not 
a  tiresome  little  boy,  and  then  he  won't  want  to 
interfere." 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  253 

"  But  the  strain  of  perpetually  smoothing  things 

over  and  avoiding  rows .  You  don't  know  what 

hell  it  is.  We  never  laugh  now  except  when  he's 
out  of  the  house,  and  when  I  hear  his  latchkey  it  is 
like  hearing  the  prison  door  shut  again  after  one  had 
escaped." 

"  For  the  Lord's  sake  don't  cry,"  said  Teresa, 
"  or  the  nurse  will  never  let  me  up  here  again.  It  is 
all  over  now,  Chips.  There's  months  and  months 
for  things  to  settle,  and  they  always  do  settle. 
Nothing  ever  goes  on  as  it  is.  I  wish  it  did  some- 
times, but  life  is  a  very  restless  thing,  like  the  kind 
of  person  who  is  always  saying,  '  Well,  what  shall 
we  do  next  ?  '  You  will  see  something  will  turn 
up." 

But  months  went  by,  and  nothing  did  turn  up. 
The  carrier  sparrows  of  Millport  somehow  dis- 
seminated the  news  that  the  Hattons  had  had  a 
split.  One  report  said  that  Evangeline  was  looking 
ill  and  went  nowhere.  This  was  contradicted  by 
someone  who  had  met  her  at  the  theatre,  "  In  quite 
her  old  spirits."  Mrs.  Carpenter  determined  to 
sift  the  matter  to  the  bottom,  and  invited  Evange- 
line to  tea.  She  refused,  so  Mrs.  Carpenter  called 
on  Susie  and  found  Mrs.  Gainsborough  there. 
Evangeline  had  gone  to  stay  for  the  week-end  with 
her  sisters-in-law,  Susie  announced  with  secret 
pleasure.  No  one  but  herself  knew  what  a  relief 
it  was  to  have  such  a  respectable  piece  of  news  to 
impart.  For  since  Mrs.  Carpenter's  visit  of  inquiry 
during  the  summer  holiday  she  had  been  in  daily 
dread  of  what  the  mysterious  "  little  bird  "  then 
alluded  to  might  not  choose  for  its  subject  next 
time  it  sang  songs  of  Araby  to  its  kind  patroness. 


254  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  The  Hattons  are  charming  girls  and  devoted  to 
Evangeline,"  Susie  added. 

"  I  suppose  she  will  be  going  out  to  her  husband 
soon,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  She  will  get  the 
climate  at  its  very  best  about  now  I  should  think." 

"  Oh  dear  no,  she  is  not  going  to  Egypt,"  said 
Susie,  with  great  surprise  at  such  an  idea.  "  She 
gave  that  up  from  the  very  first.  It  was  really 
foolish  of  her  to  think  of  it  at  all,  but  she  was  so 
anxious  to  be  with  him.  But  Doctor  Clark  says  it 
would  never  do  to  take  the  risk.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  get  a  proper  nurse  out  there,  and  either 
to  keep  a  baby  out  in  the  heat  or  to  bring  it  home 
such  a  long  way  would  be  risky.  No,  there  is  no 
idea  of  that." 

Susie  had  always  had  a  lurking  taste  for  critical 
situations  requiring  skill  in  manipulating  censorious 
persons,  and  whenever  she  managed  to  get  out  of  a 
difficult  place  with  credit,  she  always  felt  an  in- 
creased sense  of  safety  from  the  snares  of  the  stupid 
and  downright  who  persist  in  making  life  difficult  by 
wanting  everything  set  down  in  black  and  white. 

"  Oh  certainly,  you  are  very  wise,"  Mrs.  Carpenter 
agreed,  "  though  it  always  seems  hard  on  a  husband 
when  he  is  away  a  long  time.  Dear  Mamma 
always  insisted  on  going  out  to  India  whatever 
happened.  One  of  us  was  even  born  at  sea  when  the 
doctor  had  said  that  he  wouldn't  be  responsible  for 
her  unless  she  spent  one  hot  weather  at  home. 
However,  she  was  back  again  that  autumn  and  we 
were  all  left  with  dear  Grannie  until  Papa  came  home 
for  good." 

"  I  never  think  that  mothers  were  so  wise  in  those 
days  as  they  are  now,"  said  Susie.  "  One  reads  of  so 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  255 

many  little  lives  sacrificed  to  theories  of  that  sort. 
Mothers  away,  careless  nurses  and  governesses,  cold 
bathing  and  all  sorts  of  tyrannical  rules.  They  did 
nobody  any  good  that  one  can  see." 

"  Don't  you  think  that  generation  were  very 
much  stronger,  though,  than  the  present  one  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  I  do,  and  I  think  they  were 
more  high  principled." 

"  Oh  no,  I  don't  think  so,"  Susie  answered  in 
gentle  rebuke.  "  Look  at  the  drinking  that  went  on, 
for  instance.  Even  gentlemen  used  to  spend  their 
evenings  under  the  table,  unable  to  sit  up,  and  they 
did  just  as  they  liked,  and  no  one  dared  to  say  any- 
thing. The  divorce  laws  are  improving  all  the  time 
now,  though,  of  course,  it  is  still  dreadfully  wrong 
whichever  way  you  look  at  it.  Still,  I  think  people 
have  higher  ideals  than  they  did." 

Mrs.  Carpenter  was  completely  crushed  for  the 
moment.  Susie  had  left  no  opening  for  her  to 
score,  for  modern  ideals  were  her  own  favourite 
topic,  which  she  was  sometimes  unwisely  tempted 
to  confuse  with  the  superiority  of  her  own  infancy. 
Susie,  though  she  was  by  nature  always  anxious  to 
smooth  over  all  friction  between  other  people,  and 
to  establish  her  own  spiritual  triumph  over  sordid 
dispute,  had  lately  passed  through  a  dangerous 
crisis,  owing  to  the  fact  that  her  own  intrigues  against 
her  son-in-law  might  be  exposed  at  any  moment  by 
Evangeline's  impatient  candour  or  Mrs.  VacheLL's 
boastful  contempt  for  male  authority.  It  was 
necessary  that  she  should  build  for  herself  a  strong 
pedestal  of  Courage-to-do-what-is-right-at-all-costs, 
and  she  chose  to  cement  it  with  a  plastering  of  the 
Best  Modern  Thought.  Once  her  position  was  on  a 


256  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

solid  foundation,  she  would  withdraw  again  behind 
her  inviolable  mist  of  vagueness.  It  is  easy  to 
imagine  how  foolish  a  veiled  figure  of  Mystery 
would  look,  toppled  over  and  broken,  with  nothing 
left  but  some  meaningless  drapery  and  wire,  com- 
pared to  that  of,  let  us  say,  Nelson,  whose  every 
separate  feature  and  limb  would  retain  its  in- 
dividuality, whether  erect  above  the  ground  or 
scattered  upon  it. 

"  These  strikes  are  very  terrible,"  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough remarked,  seizing  upon  the  nearest  current 
topic  in  order  to  save  herself  from  the  perils  of 
controversy  into  which  she  might  be  drawn  at  any 
moment.  Poor  woman  1  She  chose  badly. 

"It  is  all  very  largely  the  fault  of  so-called 
education,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  pulling  herself 
together  for  a  new  line  of  self-assertion.  "  They 
insist  on  everybody  being  taught  to  read,  and  send 
working-men  to  the  Universities,  and  then  are 
surprised  that  they  read  the  wrong  things.  Of 
course  they  read  whatever  is  sensational,  just  as 
our  maids  prefer  trashy  novels  about  peers  marrying 
housemaids,  and  they  won't  look  at  the  classics. 
All  that  the  strikers  want  is  gramophones  and 
pianos  that  they  can't  play  and  motors  to  go  to 
work  in  instead  of  trams.  They  are  far  better 
paid  than  our  wretched  clergy,  for  instance.  I 
looked  in  on  little  Jenny  Abel  the  other  day,  and 
found  her  and  the  children  having  tea  with  nothing 
but  bread  and  a  scraping  of  margarine,  and  all  of 
them  with  colds,  and  Jenny  simply  worn  out  with 
doing  all  the  housework  and  the  cooking.  The 
small  girl  they  had  had  gone  off  to  a  place  where 
she  was  getting  £35  a  year ;  more  than  Jenny  has 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  257 

to  dress  herself  and  all  the  children.  The  girl's 
mother  took  her  away  because  she  said  she  wasn't 
properly  fed  and  had  too  much  to  do.  Said  she 
shouldn't  touch  margarine.  '  Nasty  poor  stuff,  I 
call  it !  '  she  said  ;  and  the  girl  must  have  butter 
and  jam  and  something  hot  for  supper  and  every 
afternoon  off  from  three  to  six  and  two  evenings  a 
week  out  until  ten." 

"  But  I  really  don't  think  you  would  find  those 
sort  of  girls  very  much  educated,"  said  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough nervously.  "  They  are  not  the  kind  who 
take  scholarships.  They  are,  in  a  way,  more  like 
some  of  the  girls  one  meets  about  in  society  just 
now ;  selfish,  you  know,  thinking  of  nothing  but 
amusing  themselves." 

"  I  don't  know  at  all  where  you  meet  such  girls, 
dear  lady,"  Mrs.  Carpenter  answered  rather  acidly. 
"  All  my  friends'  daughters  whom  I  can  think  of 
are  taking  up  professions." 

"  Yes,  but  rather  for  the  fun  of  it,  don't  you 
think  ?  "  poor  Mrs.  Gainsborough  suggested,  plung- 
ing more  and  more  wildly.  "  They  don't  like  to  be 
worried  by  home  life  and  they  prefer  working  with 
men  and  so  on.  It  is  very  natural,  poor  young 
things.  Just  what  I  should  have  done  myself  if  I 
had  been  born  later." 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Gainsborough,  how  shockingly 
indiscreet  1  "  said  Mrs.  Carpenter  with  a  silly  little 
laugh.  "  I  hope  you  won't  go  round  the  University 
saying  that  women  take  degrees  in  order  to  be  with 
men.  You  will  raise  a  nice  hornets'  nest  if  you  do." 

"  Oh  dear  me,  no,  that  is  not  in  the  least  what  I 
meant,"  stammered  Mrs.  Gainsborough.  "  Most  of 
the  girls  are  splendid  and  don't  run  after  the  boys 


258  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

at  all.  But  I  meant  that  I  don't  think  that  they 
care  about  domestic  things  so  much  and  that  it  is 
partly  to  escape  from  them  that  they  take  up  pro- 
fessions. I  can't  believe  that  some  of  them  who 
are  really  pretty  and  charming  can  care  very  much 
for  mathematics  and  the  other  subjects  of  that  sort 
that  they  take." 

"  Evangeline  was  telling  me  that  she  read  in 
some  paper  that  socialism  is  taking  a  great  hold  in 
the  Universities,"  said  Susie.  "  I  think  it  is  a  pity, 
because  though  it  is  a  nice  idea  in  many  ways  it 
doesn't  seem  practicable.  What  you  were  saying 
just  now  about  Mrs.  Abel  just  shows  that  everybody 
is  not  fitted  for  the  same  kind  of  work  ;  and  either 
very  strong  people  would  get  into  mischief  from 
not  having  enough  to  do  or  else  the  weaker  ones 
would  die  through  having  too  much  to  do." 

"  I  think  the  chief  difficulty  would  be  with  the 
ordinary  British  working  man,"  said  Mrs.  Gains- 
borough, innocently.  "  They  do  so  dislike  regula- 
tions of  any  sort,  and  if  they  chose  to  stop  work 
for  any  reason  I  believe  they  would  always  do  it. 
They  would  take  no  notice  of  orders  or  shots  or 
anything.  They  are  so  unused  to  not  doing  what 
they  want  and  you  can't  argue  with  them.  They 
would  just  say  it  was  all  nonsense.  They  are  very 
strong  and  not  at  all  hysterical  like  foreigners. 
They  never  paid  the  least  attention  to  rationing, 
you  remember,  during  the  war  ;  no  tradesman  dared 
to  enforce  it  in  the  industrial  districts.  They  don't 
mind  losing  their  lives  but  they  seem  to  think  it  so 
silly  to  be  ordered  about  at  home  and  so  it  is,  I 
quite  agree." 

"  Of  course,"   said  Susie,  placidly,   "  if  anyone 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  259 

could  be  found  who  had  really  enjoyed  a  revolution 
it  would  be  different  and  one  would  have  more 
sympathy.  It  is  worth  any  sacrifice  to  make 
people  happy.  But  beyond  a  few  brutal  kind  of 
men,  who  I  am  sure  are  either  naturally  disagreeable 
or  not  English,  it  seems  to  make  everyone  discon- 
tented. Even  the  people  who  make  themselves 
comfortable  in  ruined  palaces  must  be  afraid  of 
someone  wanting  to  turn  them  out.  It  all  seems  so 
gloomy  from  what  one  reads.  Must  you  really  go  ? 
I  hope  you  will  come  back,  Mrs.  Carpenter,  and  see 
Evangeline  when  she  comes  home.  Now  she  is  here 
for  good  she  will  want  something  to  interest  her. 
She  might  help  you  perhaps  at  Christmas  with  your 
parcels  distribution.  Dear  Evan  was  so  anxious 
she  should  be  too  busy  and  happy  to  miss  him 
just  now." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

JUST  before-  Christmas,  Teresa  met  Lady  Varens  in 
a  shop.  "  My  dear,  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you,"  said 
the  soft  voice  that  reminded  her  of  Aldwych  and 
her  first  happiness  there.  "  Come  and  have  tea 
with  me  somewhere.  I  have  a  great  deal  to  tell 
you."  Teresa's  heart  bounded  and  bumped.  It 
seemed  a  year  before  the  girl  behind  the  counter 
located  her  particular  little  wooden  ball  from 
among  the  dozens  that  were  bowling  along  the  wire 
above  her  head,  carrying  little  scraps  of  paper  and 
small  change  to  a  stupid  public  who  did  not  know 
David.  She  followed  Lady  Varens  through  the 
crowd  to  a  shop  on  the  other  side  of  the  street, 
where  they  sat  down  at  a  table  shut  away  in  a 
recess  off  the  main  room.  "  What  would  you 
like  ?  "  Lady  Varens  asked  ;  "  tea  and  crumpets  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,  anything,  awfully,"  said  Teresa,  hardly 
able  to  hide  her  impatience. 

"  David  is  coming  back  next  week,  did  you 
know  ?  "  said  Lady  Varens.  "  Has  he  written  to 
you  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Teresa  ;  "  I  haven't  heard  from  him 
for  a  year."  Tears  came  into  her  eyes,  but  she 
flattered  herself  that  they  were  unobserved. 

"  We  are  both  going  to  stay  with  Mr.  Manley," 
Lady  Varens  went  on.  "  I  had  just  let  my  villa 
and  was  going  to  friends  in  Rome  when  David's 

260 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  261 

letter  came  ;  but  I  didn't  want  to  lose  any  time  by 
bringing  him  round  all  that  way  so  I  came  here  and 
Mr.  Manley  wants  us  both  to  go  to  him.  We  must 
settle  finally  with  the  Prices  whether  we  take 
Aldwych  back  next  year  or  whether  I  go  out  with 
David  to  the  Argentine.  He  has  a  charming  house 
there." 

"  Oh,"  said  Teresa,  "  and  which  do  you  think 
you  will  do  ?  "  Her  heart  seemed  to  have  stood 
still  for  a  year,  waiting  for  the  answer,  before  it 
came. 

"  I  don't  know  at  all,  but  old  Bessie,  David's 
nurse,  who  writes  to  me  sometimes  from  the  village, 
says  they  are  all  longing  for  him  to  come  back. 
The  Prices  seem  to  have  put  everybody's  back  up. 
None  of  the  outside  people  will  stay  if  he  buys  the 
place  and  ^he  makes  all  sorts  of  mischief  with  the 
bailiff  and  the  farmers,  imagining  he  is  being  robbed 
of  sixpence  somewhere  or  other.  He  says  that  if 
he  buys  it  he  is  going  to  get  an  American  expert 
over  to  run  it  all  on  some  new  system  by  which 
everything  is  organised  and  checked  automatically, 
and  the  output,  as  they  call  it,  of  every  grain  and 
cow  and  rabbit  and  man  and  boy  on  the  place  is 
ascertained,  and  if  it  doesn't  work  out  at  the  maxi- 
mum the  animal  is  destroyed  and  the  man  is  sacked." 

"  Oh,  David  must  come  back,"  said  Teresa.  "  It 
sounds  too  horrible." 

"  Very  well  then,  dear,  tell  him  so,"  said  Lady 
Varens,  drinking  her  tea  peacefully  without  a  hint 
of  intention  in  her  voice. 

"  I  can't  think  why  the  man  in  the  Bible  was  told 
to  give  all  his  money  to  the  poor  if  it  wasn't  the 
right  thing  to  do,"  said  Teresa.  She  put  her  chin 


262  THREE  LOVING   LADIES 

on  her  hands  and  puckered  her  brow  over  some 
inner  problem. 

"  I  think  it  was  probably  suggested  more  for  his 
benefit  than  for  that  of  the  poor,"  said  Lady  Varens. 
"  It  is  the  giving  that  matters  much  more  than  who 
gets  the  stuff." 

"  Do  you  really  think  so  ?  "  said  Teresa. 

"  Yes,  personally  I  do.  People  can  only  be 
governed  by  the  qualities  that  are  in  them,  and  a 
state  can't  make  them  equal,  because  it  is  made  up 
itself  of  inequalities.  It  can  never  be  made  into  an 
automatic  machine  ;  it  is  alive — made  of  live  things. 
I  can't  understand  how  even  decent  socialists  can 
expect  it  to  act  as  if  it  were  a  machine.  Of  course 
one  knows  what  bad  communists  are  after.  They 
are  just  criminal  tyrants  who  want  to  be  beasts  in 
control  instead  of  controlled  beasts.  But  the  good 
ones  make  me  desperate.  It  is  so  impossible  to 
imagine  anything  but  disaster  coming  from  their 
innocent  idiocy.  They  seem  to  go  on  blindly 
hoping  that  human  intelligence  can  devise  a  scheme 
that  is  proof  against  human  intelligence.  They  are 
dear  things  but  I  do  wish  they  would  take  their 
hobby  horses  to  some  place  where  the  bad  boys 
couldn't  harness  them  to  the  cart  that  will  land  us 
all  in  the  ditch.  They  think  they  can  out-theorise 
history  and  all  forms  of  religion." 

Two  little  tears  rolled  at  last  down  Teresa's  cheeks 
and  were  lost  in  the  cup  with  which  she  tried  in  vain 
to  hide  them.  Their  salt  taste  symbolised  to  her 
the  bitterness  of  her  failure. 

"  Oh,  bother  it !  "  she  said ;  "  I  give  up  here  and 
now  trying  to  do  any  good.  It  is  no  earthly  use." 

"  David  said  that  when  he  left  Oxford,"  said 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  263 

Lady  Varens,  lighting  a  cigarette  to  avoid  Teresa's 
eye.  "  But  in  a  way  he  works  harder  than  ever  at 
it  now." 

"  Does  he  ?  "  Teresa  answered  with  elaborate 
indifference. 

"  Yes ;  won't  you  come  to  dinner  with  us  while 
we  are  with  Mr.  Manley  ?  He  said  I  was  to  ask 
anyone  I  liked  and  he  loves  you." 

"  Yes,  I  would  like  to." 

"  Very  well ;  come  next  Thursday  if  you  are  not 
too  busy,"  said  Lady  Varens.  "  By  the  way,  how 
is  your  sister  ?  Are  they  still  at  Drage  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no — dear  me,  it  is  a  long  story  to  tell  you 
all  the  things  that  have  happened  since  you  left. 
But  Evan  is  in  Egypt  and  Evangeline  and  Ivor  are 
with  us." 

"  I  am  sorry  ;  that  sounds  dreary,"  she  said. 
"  I  never  knew  your  sister  well,  but  I  liked  him 
though  he  seemed  so  different  from  her.  I  often 
wished  he  had  thought  of  going  out  to  the  colonies 
or  something  of  that  sort.  I  believe  it  would  have 
suited  her.  I  can't  see  her  in  a  garrison  town." 

"  She  used  to  say  she  would  like  to  lead  two  lives 
at  once,"  said  Teresa.  "  One  assort  of  Wild  West 
business  and  the  other  with  someone  very  literary, 
but  Evan  isn't  either,  so  I  suppose  people  com- 
promise or  do  something  different  from  what  they 
intended." 

"  Tell  me,  Teresa,"  said  Lady  Varens,  "  I  am  not 
asking  from  curiosity  ;  is  it  a  success  ?  " 

"  Chips  could  make  a  success  of  almost  anybody 
who  didn't  interfere  with  her,"  Teresa  replied. 
"  She  is  not  at  all  exacting  and  she  is  so  affectionate. 
But  Evan  is  a  little  like  John  Knox  or  that  sort  of 


264  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

person ;  then  she  does  things  without  telling  him 
and  he  gets  all  sorts  of  ideas  into  his  head.  I  do 
hate  Mrs.  Vachell.  I  think  she  does  more  harm 
than  a  thousand  mothers-in-law."  Lady  Varens 
laughed. 

"  Do  be  careful  what  you  say  about  mothers-in- 
law.  When  David  marries  I  shall  remind  you  of 
that  remark  and  ask  you  not  to  suggest  to  my 
daughter-in-law  that  I  interfere,  because  I  don't." 

Teresa  blushed  and  looked  vexed.  "  I  had  for- 
gotten about  you,  really,"  she  said.  "  But  Mrs. 
Vachell  came  to  stay  by  the  sea  when  Chips  and  I 
were  there  with  Ivor,  and  it  all  went  wrong  after 
that.  I  don't  think  they  were  ever  happy  again. 
And  I  believe  she  only  did  it  out  of  sheer  spite 
because  she  hates  men." 

"  Does  she  ?  I  should  never  have  guessed  that," 
said  Lady  Varens. 

"  No,  nobody  would.  She  never  says  a  word, 
but  she  used  to  get  at  that  wretched  boy  Fisk, 
at  the  University,  and  put  him  up  to  all  sorts  of 
revolutions ;  not  because  she  cares  twopence 
about  the  poor,  I  think,  unless  they  are  women, 
but  she  wants  women  to  govern  everything,  and  I 
think  she  got  him  to  believe  that  they  would  all 
help  a  revolution  for  the  sake  of  making  laws  to 
get  what  they  want  for  themselves.  Don't  you 
think  that  Miss  Smackfield  would  probably  drop 
her  Bolshevism  if  there  were  any  women  capita- 
lists ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  or  anyone  else  knows  exactly 
what  a  capitalist  is.  But  do  you  seriously  suppose 
Miss  Smackfield  cares  a  hang  what  any  row  is 
about  so  long  as  she  can  be  in  the  front  with  an 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  265 

axe,  shouting,  '  Off  with  his  head  !  '  like  the  Queen 
of  the  pack  of  cards.  She  would  be  forgotten 
to-morrow  if  someone  put  a  flower  pot  over  her." 

They  talked  for  some  little  time  and  at  last  Lady 
Varens  said,  "  It  is  so  difficult  to  remedy  anything, 
from  a  disease  to  a  grievance.  There  is  always  a 
'  vicious  circle/  not  one  thing  alone  that  is  the 
matter.  People  are  ill  because  they  fuss  and  fuss 
because  they  are  ill.  There  are  some,  I  think, 
who  want  a  revolution  because  they  are  miserable, 
and  others  who  are  miserable  because  they  want 
a  revolution,  another  lot  who  make  other  people's 
misfortunes  an  excuse  for  making  a  row  and  some 
more  who  put  all  their  misfortunes  down  to  other 
people's  love  of  making  a  row.  If  you  take  a 
human  body  in  that  sort  of  contradictory  mess  into 
a  doctor's  consulting  room,  he  pays  no  attention 
to  the  details,  but  tells  the  patient  to  wash  in  the 
Ganges  or  eat  a  lightly-boiled  onion  an  hour  before 
sunset  with  his  back  to  the  north ;  or  else  he  tries 
psycho-analysis  or  hypnotism." 

"  Oh,  does  he  ?  "  said  Teresa,  who  was  quite 
bewildered  by  this  time. 

"  Yes,  he  does,  and  once  upon  a  time  it  was  done 
with  incantations  and  charms,  or  the  fat  of  a 
dormouse  was  rubbed  under  the  ear.  There  was 
Christianity  too,  with  all  sorts  of  by-products  in 
the  way  of  Reformations  and  Crusades — but  you 
see  my  point.  A  really  engrossing  superstition 
or  a  creed  with  a  ritual  would  be  more  useful  than 
discussing  symptoms  of  national  neurasthenia. 
Any  idea  that  is  unselfish  and  clean  would  do,  and 
Bolshevism  isn't  either ;  it  is  both  selfish  and 
dirty." 


266  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  But  you  can't  preach  unselfishness  to  the 
unemployed,"  Teresa  objected,  "  not,  anyhow,  so 
long  as  there  are  '  boudoir  gowns  for  my  lady  when 
she  snatches  a  moment's  rest  in  her  strenuous 
afternoon,'  advertised  in  the  papers.  If  I  were 
an  unemployed,  I  should  want  to  tear  my  lady  in 
pieces,  and  roll  her  beastly  maid  with  the  sofa 
and  the  pot  of  chocolate  over  and  over  in  the  mud 
on  the  Embankment." 

"  That's  illogical,"  said  Lady  Varens.  "  I  have 
to  shut  my  eyes  tight  when  I  see  advertisements  of 
anything  to  do  with  my  lady,  because  I  know  that 
that  sort  of  indignation  is  off  the  line.  Com- 
munism is  dreary  and  crushing  and  impossible, 
I  think  ;  and  if  you  are  going  to  let  people  keep 
the  money  they  or  their  fathers  make,  then  you 
must  let  them  alone  to  spend  it  as  they  like.  There 
are  idiots  in  every  class  who  chuck  money  about. 
But,  as  I  say,  if  you  are  going  to  admit  freedom  to 
inherit  and  make,  you  must  have  freedom  to  spend 
as  well,  or  else  Rule  Britannia  becomes  Rule  Bol- 
shevina,  and  my  dear  friend,  the  British  working 
man,  who  hates  to  be  hustled,  will  have  to  set  up 
his  apple  cart  again  in  some  other  place." 

"  No,  it  is  quite  true,  it  won't  suit  him  a  bit," 
said  Teresa,  thinking  of  Mr.  Jason. 

"  I  have  tried  to  imagine  the  very  beeriest  British 
loafer  being  made  compulsorily  drunk  at  stated 
intervals  by  a  public  authority,  and  I  can't  see 
him  getting  a  bit  of  pleasure  out  of  it.  And  as  for 
being  compulsorily  busy,  and  .obliged  to  see  nothing 
but  good  plays,  and  sent  to  hear  good  music — 
has  any  real  Englishman  ever  devised  such  a  plan, 
or  are  they  all  those  very  unhumorous  Huns  in 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  267 

disguise  ?  Only  a  nation  that  wears  spectacles 
could  picture  England  as  a  community  with  rules, 
except  the  ordinary  policeman  rules.  But  the 
people  have  got  so  used  to  freedom  that  they  may 
let  the  thing  go  on  and  stand  watching  it  like  a 
dog  fight  until  it  is  done  and  has  to  be  cleaned  up." 

"  That  is  what  Mrs.  Vachell  said  about  Evange- 
line,  that  father  wouldn't  interfere  about  Evan 
until  he  had  actually  done  something.  She  said  that 
men  won't  bother  to  prevent  a  thing  happening." 

"  What  are  you  talking  about  ?  "  said  Lady 
Varens. 

"  Oh,  I  forgot,  I  was  thinking  about  what  you 
said.  Evan  did  rather  try  to  work  out  theories 
about  Ivor  and  there  was  a  bother  that  there 
needn't  have  been  if  he  and  Chips  had  understood 
each  other  instead  of  working  separately.  How- 
ever that  is  nothing.  I  expect  they  will  worry 
through  all  right." 

"  Well,  come  and  see  David,"  said  Lady  Varens, 
"  and  help  us  to  decide  what  we  will  do.  He  is  all 
for  stopping  a  muddle  before  it  is  too  late." 

Teresa  went  home  in  a  tram,  among  the  faces  in 
the  fog,  but  she  did  not  notice  them.  She  was 
tired  to  death  by  problems  and  counter  problems ; 
by  desires  that  seemed  to  lead  straight  to  a  just 
and  happy  end,  and  were  blocked  always,  sooner 
or  later,  by  some  defect  of  the  quality  that  en- 
gendered them.  Equality  had  a  way  of  elbowing 
the  grace  of  respect  off  the  path,  social  recognition 
bred  snobbery  and  civic  responsibility  led  to 
jobbery,  philanthropy  grew  so  easily  into  impertin- 
ence, reform  into  self-righteousness  and  content- 
ment into  smugness ;  there  seemed  no  end  to  the 


268  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

fine  and  stupid  ideas  that  had  started  along  the 
same  road.  Innocence  and  discipline  fought  for 
perfection  in  every  imaginative  task.  She  saw 
a  world  full  of  Evans  and  Evangelines  quarrelling 
irreconcilably  for  ever,  like  Tweedledum  and  Tweedle- 
dee. 

The  car  trundled  and  swayed,  grinding  along 
its  rails.  The  distorted,  grotesquely-dressed  forms 
that  had  been  made  beautiful  all  these  years  in 
her  imagination  by  the  belief  that  they  were  princes 
and  princesses  in  disguise,  waiting  for  the  magic 
touch  of  recognition  to  restore  them  to  their  king- 
dom, failed  for  the  first  time  to  excite  her  interest. 
The  desire  which  used  to  entice  her  with  the  promise 
of  a  new  world  had  vanished,  and  left  in  its  place 
a  message  rather  like  the  traditional  note  on  the 
pincushion  left  by  the  escaping  heroine  of  romance. 
The  message  said  that  the  only  truth  on  which 
heaven  and  earth  were  agreed  was  that  a  marriage 
would  shortly  take  place. 

She  cheered  up  a  little  as  she  looked  at  the  fog- 
bound faces  on  either  side  of  her,  and  thought  how 
greatly  any  of  them  might  be  improved  by  loving 
any  one  as  much  as  she  loved  David.  Another 
still  more  cheerful  idea  occurred  to  her,  that  per- 
haps they  did  I  Perhaps  it  was  only  the  mud 
filtering  down  upon  the  city  that  made  them  look 
so  depressed.  Inside  their  minds  there  might  be 
an  inextinguishable  flame  that  only  needed  to 
be  kindled  to  destroy  all  anger  and  discontent. 
"  I  suppose  there  will  always  be  Evans  and  Evange- 
lines," she  thought,  "  all  the  Tweedledums  and 
Tweedledees,  and  they  will  fight  about  nothing 
whenever  they  meet ;  but  if  they  were  really  in 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  269 

love  Evan  wouldn't  look  for  trouble  and  Evangeline 
wouldn't  try  to  walk  round  it ;  they  would  go 
through  it  together  as  it  came.  I  am  glad  David 
doesn't  either  worry  or  shirk — but  then,  of  course, 
he  wouldn't." 

When  she  reached  home  she  went  up  to  the 
nursery  where  Evangeline  was  putting  Ivor  to  bed, 
it  being  nurse's  afternoon  out.  When  he  was 
tucked  up  and  Evangeline  was  tidying  the  nursery, 
Teresa  sat  down  by  the  fire  and  said,  "  I  met  Lady 
Varens  and  had  tea  with  her.  David  is  coming 
home  in  a  few  days,  and  they  are  going  to  stay  with 
Mr.  Manley.  They  are  going  to  make  up  their 
minds  what  they  will  do  with  Aldwych." 

"  Oh,  are  they  ?  "  said  Evangeline.  "  Do  you 
suppose  they  will  go  back  ?  " 

"  I  should  think  quite  likely." 

"  You  look  very  pleased,  Dicky,"  said  Evange- 
line, looking  at  her  sister's  face  in  the  firelight. 

"  I  am  so  glad  if  it  is  all  right.  But  Dicky "  she 

hesitated  in  a  frightened  way — "  you  know  I 
have  no  nerves  in  these  days,  and  I  get  unnecessary 
panics — ,  don't  build  on  his  being  the  same  as 
when  he  went  away,  will  you?  You  know  what 
men  are." 

"  Oh,  Chips,  do  drop  that  men  and  women 
business,"  said  Teresa  wearily.  "  There  are  men 
and  men  and  David  is  David." 

"  I  know,"  she  admitted,  "  but  you  see  Evan  is 
also  Evan,  so  I  warn  you  from  my  experience — 
quite  kindly  meant,  and  you  are  angry,  quite 
fairly." 

"  I  think  you  would  like  him  best  to  be  Evan  if 
you  loved  him,"  said  Teresa.  "  He  wouldn't  be 


270  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

'  men '  any  more,  and  you  wouldn't  compare  him 
with  yourself." 

"  I  do  love  him,"  Evangeline  answered  ;  "  but 
he  thinks  I  don't  because  I  deceived  him." 

"  Do  you  suppose  he  doesn't  love  you  because  he 
deceived  you  ?  " 

"  I  am  sure  he  doesn't,  because  men — I  am  sorry, 
I  won't  say  it.  But  he  is  always  talking  about 
'  women  '  too.  In  fact,  he  began." 

"  Do  you  know,  as  I  was  coming  up  in  the  tram 
it  occurred  to  me  how  like  Tweedledum  and  Tweedle- 
dee  you  two  are,  and  now  what  you  say  makes  you 
more  absurdly  like.  They  never  knew  which  began 
the  quarrels.  You  need  a  '  monstrous  crow '  to 
send  you  both  flying  into  one  another's  arms.  Of 
course  if  you  were  in  a  book  Ivor  would  have  a 
dangerous  illness  or  something  silly  like  that." 

"  That  would  only  make  us  hate  each  other  more 
because  he  would  say  that  God  did  it  for  our  good, 
and  I  should  say  that  God  was  sorry  the  devil 
did  it." 

"  And  suppose  Ivor  died,  whose  doing  would  you 
say  it  was  ?  " 

"  No  one's  doing  at  all.  But  I  should  say  the 
devil  made  the  germs  and  that  God  did  nothing, 
except  that  He  was  glad  to  have  Ivor  back." 

"  I  am  sure  that  is  very  bad  theology,"  said 
Teresa,  "  You  can't  have  Badness  with  a  definite 
intention  and  Goodness  without  any." 

"  Why  not  ?  Intentions  mean  brains  and  theories 
and  I  do  loathe  them  more  than  I  can  tell  you. 
I'm  content  with  things  that  are  alive  and  perfect ; 
I  mean  without  diseases  and  sins.  One  doesn't 
need  any  intention  for  loving  the  sun  and  every- 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  271 

thing  that  I  call  '  God.'  But  Evan  sets  his  brain 
humming  and  buzzing  like  a  factory  to  make  up 
the  awful  Moloch  of  a  creature  that  he  worships." 

"It  is  very  odd,"  said  Teresa,  "  how  people 
have  always  been  more  annoyed  by  each  other's 
religions  than  by  anything  else.  I  am  myself. 
I  could  put  up  with  Mrs.  Carpenter's  face,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  things  she  says  about  the  Church. 
But  there  we  go  again  !  I  suppose  if  a  monstrous 
crow  could  frighten  quarrellers  apart  a  monstrous 
dove  might  prevent  them  from  fighting ;  but  I 
don't  know,  and  there  would  probably  be  some 
drawback  to  that  too ;  there  always  is.  I  am 
going  to  meet  David  next  week." 

"  You  know,  I  can't  go  on  living  at  home  for 
ever,"  said  Evangeline.  "  I  shall  have  to  arrange 
something  when  all  this  business  is  over,  and  what 
am  I  going  to  tell  people  ?  I  can't  keep  an  unex- 
plained husband  in  the  background  all  my  life. 
Just  think  of  it !  Very  little  money,  no  man,  no 
father  for  the  children  and  no  explanation  to  give. 
I  shall  have  to  become  a  paid  agitator  in  self- 
defence." 

"  To  agitate  about  what  ?  " 

"  Oh,  anything.  Mrs.  Vachell  belongs  to  all 
sorts  of  societies.  I  might  help  to  run  a  paper. 
I've  always  liked  papers." 

"  Yes,  I  know  you  have,"  said  Teresa.  "  I 
think,  Chips,  if  you  hadn't  sat  so  comfortably  in 
the  sun,  and  been  content  with  sensations  you  might 
have  found  out  more  for  yourself.  Isn't  that  why 
we  called  you  '  Chips,'  just  because  you  were  always 
picking  up  bits  of  information  ?  I  always  think  of 
toast  and  newspapers  when  I  remember  you  as 


272  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

my  elder  sister  in  the  nursery.  Either  with  toast 
and  newspapers  by  the  fire  or  else  out  in  the  garden 
when  you  ought  to  have  been  somewhere  else. 
Do  you  remember  when  you  brought  in  a  worm 
when  we  were  away  in  the  country,  and  you  put 
it  on  a  doll's  chair  on  the  tea  table,  and  tried  to 
make  it  sit  up,  and  Miss  Jacks  came  in  ?  But  to 
go  back  to  your  newspaper ;  you  can't  do  that. 
Do  wait  until  you  are  well  again,  and  then  go 
away  from  Mrs.  Vachell,  and  write  to  Evan.  I 
am  not  sure  you  hadn't  better  leave  your  family 
with  nurse  and  me  somewhere,  and  go  to  Egypt 
yourself ;  but,  anyhow,  it  will  be  all  right.  I 
have  told  you  things  are  always  happening." 

"  Evan's  sisters  are  another  problem,"  Evange- 
line  said  presently.  "  They  don't  know  anything 
yet,  but  they  keep  on  wanting  Ivor  to  go  there, 
and  when  they  do  find  out  they  will  do  everything 
they  can  to  get  him  taken  away  from  me.  They 
will  think  I  am  an  active  danger  if  I  differ  from 
Evan  hi  any  way.  And  they  are  so  silly  with 
Ivor.  They  do  spoil  him  so." 

"  I  think  that  is  awfully  funny,"  said  Teresa. 
"  Doesn't  it  amuse  you  if  you  think  of  it  ?  " 

"  You  mean  because  Evan  complains  of  me 
spoiling  him  ?  But  then,  you  see,  I  don't  and  they 
do.  You  never  saw  such  drivel  as  they  carry  on. 
Ivor  gets  quite  imbecile  when  he  is  there  ;  he  hardly 
seems  the  same.  It  isn't  gaiety,  it  is  a  sort  of 
orgie  of  pranks  ;  like  those  wearisome  film  comedies 
where  a  lot  of  people  slip  up  on  a  piece  of  soap, 
and  get  covered  with  whitewash  and  food.  Really 
when  I  am  staying  there  I  often  feel  like  asking  the 
cook  to  shoot  me  into  the  dining-room  by  the 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  273 

hatch  and  fling  a  basin  of  custard  after  me  just 
so  as  not  to  damp  the  party." 

"  Doesn't  Evan  mind  that  ?  " 

"  No,  he  doesn't,  because  it  is  something  that 
can  be  explained.  It  doesn't  amuse  him,  but  he 
can  pigeon-hole  it  as  '  all  good  girls'  '  way  of  amus- 
ing themselves.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  him, 
but  it  is  a  necessary  cog  in  the  machinery  of  a  nice 
family  so  he  can  get  on  with  something  else  while 
they  do  it.  It  is  almost  like  a  domestic  rite.  But 
when  I  enjoy  myself  he  thinks  it  is  moral  indulgence 
because  it  isn't  planned  out  and  it  isn't  tiring." 

"  I  don't  know  how  father  gets  on  so  well  with 
all  sorts  of  different  people,"  said  Teresa.  "  It 
never  seems  to  bother  him  if  they  don't  understand 
what  he  is  talking  about.  He  never  tries  to  explain 
himself  or  cares  whether  they  agree  with  him  or 
not." 

"No,  I  daresay,  but  then  he  has  only  got  himself 
to  bother  about,"  said  Evangeline.  "  If  he  had 
to  protect  us  from  a  wife  with  high  principles  it 
might  make  him  think  a  bit." 

Teresa  dreaded  telling  her  mother  about  the 
Varens'  return.  Experience  has  taught  me  that 
there  are  many  painstaking  minds  who  will  come 
to  a  knot  at  this  point,  and  want  to  be  told  why 
any  young  girl  with  a  clear  conscience  should 
dread  to  tell  so  amiable  and  good  a  mother  that  an 
eligible  young  man,  dear  to  them  both,  has  returned 
to  the  neighbourhood.  But  it  cannot  be  made 
quite  clear  to  all  readers.  The  nearest  thing  that 
can  be  said  is  that  perhaps  if  Susie  had  been  known 
to  approve  less  of  the  possibility  with  which  Teresa 
was  secretly  aglow,  the  girl  would  have  been  less 


274  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

anxious  to  keep  it  to  herself.  "  Alice  in  Wonderland  " 
is  full  of  the  everyday  experience  of  simple  people, 
and  in  one  of  those  irrational  gambollings  of  the 
female  mind  which  have  been  referred  to  on  another 
page  I  seem  to  see  Susie  represented  by  the  kindly 
Dodo  who  said  to  Alice  after  she  had  won  the  race, 
"  I  beg  your  acceptance  of  this  elegant  thimble," 
and  presented  her  with  her  own  property.  Teresa 
was  as  straight-forward  as  Alice,  and  liked  things 
to  work  out  logically,  so  she  resented  being  led  up 
to  her  lover,  as  much  as  she  disliked  hearing  Mrs. 
Carpenter  instruct  Mrs.  Potter  in  the  art  of  patience. 

She  decided  now  that  the  dangerous  moment  could 
be  most  successfully  faced  under  Cyril's  protection, 
so  she  announced  at  dinner,  "  I  met  Lady  Varens 
to-day,  and  they  are  both  coming  back,  probably 
for  good."  She  made  the  news  sound  as  gossipy 
and  impersonal  as  she  could,  and  shot  a  rapid  glance 
at  her  father. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  that,"  he  replied.  "  The 
Perkin  Warbecks  can  now  resume  their  normal 
occupations." 

"  Who  are  they  ?  "   she  said. 

"  I  don't  know  who  they  were,  but  I  remember 
being  sent  to  bed  because  I  didn't  know  that  they 
aspired  to  the  throne.  I've  remembered  their 
beastly  names  ever  since." 

"  They  are  staying  with  Mr.  Manley,"  Teresa 
went  on,  "  at  least  she  is,  and  David  is  going  there 
next  week.  I  promised  to  go  to  dinner  one  evening, 
so  I  can  tell  them  about  the  Perkin  Warbecks.  It 
is  nice  to  think  how  pleased  the  farmers  will  be, 
isn't  it  ?  "  She  felt  some  pride  in  the  way  she  was 
conducting  this  affair. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  275 

"  Very  nice,  dear,"  said  Susie  quietly.  "  Do  you 
know  at  all  how  he  got  on  in  the  Argentine  ?  " 

"  No,  she  didn't  say,"  Teresa  answered. 

"  I  thought  perhaps  you  might  have  heard 
sometimes,"  said  Susie.  "  So  often  out  in  those 
lonely  places  people  are  so  glad  of  posts,  and  they 
write  and  tell  one  all  sorts  of  things  about  them- 
selves, just  with  the  idea  of  getting  an  answer.  I 
remember  I  had  a  cousin  who  used  to  write  dread- 
fully dull  letters  all  about  the  country  and  then 
strings  and  strings  of  questions." 

Teresa  need  not  have  been  afraid.  Her  mother 
did,  as  Evangeline  had  pointed  out,  achieve  what 
seemed  like  conjuring  tricks  in  the  lives  of  other 
people,  but  she  only  prepared  spiritual  omelets  in 
places  where  no  omelet  was  likely  to  be  made  in  the 
ordinary  way.  Having  satisfied  herself  now  that 
Teresa  had  been  completely  cut  off  from  David 
while  he  was  away  and  was  full  of  suppressed  excite- 
ment at  his  return,  she  was  too  great  an  artist  in 
mystery  to  use  apparatus  when  the  laws  of  nature 
were  already  operating  in  the  direction  she  wished. 

Three  days  after  this  was  Christmas  Day,  and 
both  Susie  and  Teresa  had  a  busy  day  before  them. 
Susie  was  to  attend  a  tea  and  distribution  of  useful 
Christmas  presents  to  the  inmates  of  the  Mary 
Popley  Home,  and  Teresa  was  to  help  serve  dinner 
to  some  hundreds  of  street  urchins,  members  of 
one  of  the  many  organisations  with  which  Emma's 
devoted  band  worked  ceaselessly  and  hopefully, 
undeterred  by  rumours  of  class  war  or  theories 
about  the  reconstruction  of  the  State.  Emma's 
workers  got  on  with  the  business  of  cleaning  the  city 
as  best  they  could,  while  Fisk,  the  people's  friend, 


276  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

raved  of  blood  and  destruction,  and  then  went  home 
to  tend  his  dormice.  Teresa's  post  was  at  the  end 
of  a  trestle  table  with  nearly  fifty  boys  on  each  side. 
She  was  buttoned  up  to  the  neck  in  an  overall ; 
her  face  was  hot  from  the  stove  beside  her  and  from 
the  crowded  atmosphere  ;  her  head  felt  bursting 
from  the  smell  of  poor  homes  and  the  clapper  of 
voices ;  her  feet  were  icy  from  the  draught  along 
the  wooden  floor  which  was  only  separated  from  the 
street  by  an  open  door  and  a  long  stone  passage.  In 
front  of  her  was  a  gigantic  hot-pot,  replaced  by 
another  as  soon  as  empty.  She  held  in  her  hand  a 
long  iron  spoon,  greasy  from  top  to  bottom  and 
heavy  to  wield.  At  her  elbow  were  a  pile  of  plates, 
which  were  snatched  up  and  borne  away  by  other 
helpers  as  fast  as  she  filled  them.  There  were  three 
tables  altogether,  and  the  same  thing  was  happening 
at  both  ends  of  each.  Other  people,  visitors  and 
members  of  the  committee,  stood  about  the  room 
and  looked  on,  giving  a  hand  with  any  extra  job 
that  was  needed.  When  the  last  plate  was  filled 
Teresa  had  a  moment  in  which  to  look  at  the  faces 
down  the  table.  They  were  all  faces  from  behind 
the  fog,  but  they  were  young,  and  the  Great  De- 
pression (as  she  called  the  public  expression  of 
countenance  when  she  first  came  to  Millport)  had 
not  yet  reached  them.  Many  of  them  were  pale 
and  pinched,  many  were  apple-faced,  some  fat  and 
white,  but  they  were  ail  young  and  as  free  as 
squirrels.  They  bore  marks  of  cold  and  hunger, 
some  of  them  of  cruelty  and  disease,  every  single 
one  of  them  had  a  cold  in  the  head  and  took  no 

notice  of  it.     "  The  plum  pudding,  Miss .     May 

I  pass  ?  "  said  a  voice  beside  her,  and,  as  she  moved, 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  277 

a  monstrous  pudding  was  put  before  her  and  the 
helpers  pawed  the  ground  in  their  impatience  to  be 
off  with  the  plates.  Teresa  doled  out  great  helpings 
of  the  stuff  as  fast  as  she  could,  grasping  her  heavy 
spoon  with  both  hands.  Once  more  she  had  time 
to  look  at  the  boys.  They  were  not  talking  now  ; 
they  were  stuffing,  and  they  had  said  all  they  had  to 
say  to  their  neighbours.  She  saw  one  of  them 
deposit  a  large  tablespoonful  of  the  pudding  in  a 
pocket  of  his  little  age- worn  waistcoat,  and  in  the 
horror  of  the  moment  she  exclaimed,  "  Child  !  what 
on  earth  are  you  doing  ?  " 

"  It's  for  me  granny,"  he  said,  "  she's  sick." 
Teresa  experienced  the  upheaval  of  mind  and  body 
that  used  to  shake  her  with  a  general  sense  of  topsy- 
turvydom when  she  first  took  up  Emma's  work, 
and  which  she  had  nearly  lost  during  the  last  years. 
She  remembered  Ivor  as  she  had  left  him  that 
morning,  happily  engaged  in  discussion  on  seasonable 
topics  of  revelry,  she  thought  of  dirty  little  faces 
assembled  outside  toyshops  lighted  up  early  on 
account  of  the  penetrating  fog  ;  she  had  a  vision 
of  the  Price  family  in  paper  caps  seated  among  a 
debris  of  hothouse  dessert  and  wine  and  coffee  and 
expensive  trifles  in  leather  and  gold,  recently  un- 
wrapped from  parcels,  each  "  novelty "  designed 
to  save  small  discomforts,  such  as  the  lighting  of  a 
match  or  the  turn  of  a  head  to  see  the  time  ;  she 
thought  of  Evan's  sisters,  giggling  happily  beneath 
banners  that  advertised  Peace  and  Goodwill,  and  of 
Fisk  at  the  other  end  of  the  Christmas  dinner-table, 
gloomily  contemplating  his  father's  mesalliance,  the 
Gainsboroughs'  old  cook  who  never  could  cook 
anything  decently,  and  who  had  now  become  the  last 


278  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

straw  on  all  that  an  unjust  government  had  heaped 
upon  him  at  his  birth.  Teresa's  mind,  which  had 
by  now  established  David  in  its  background  as  a 
referee  in  all  debated  questions,  recalled  at  this 
moment  her  first  visit  to  Aldwych  and  her  self- 
reproach  for  having  eaten  the  price  of  Albert 
Potter's  splints.  "  I  have  been  along  that  road," 
David  had  said,  "  and  it  leads  nowhere  except  to  a 
maze  where  you  lose  yourself  and  die  for  want  of  a 
new  argument."  "  David  !  "  she  cried  now,  in  her 
heart,  "  David  !  get  me  out  of  this  and  take  me 
with  you,  if  you  know  where  you  are  going." 


CHAPTER    XX 

SUSIE,  meanwhile,  was  performing  prodigies  of  peace 
and  goodwill  at  the  Mary  Popley  Home.  She 
radiated  the  most  suitable  atmosphere  that  a  lady 
visitor  to  a  rescue  home  could  possibly  have  evolved 
after  years  of  thought,  and  she  did  it  without  any 
thought  at  all !  The  "  inmates,"  as  they  were 
called,  and  as  we  will  call  them  for  want  of  a  less 
lively  word,  literally  basked  in  her  smile.  Grave 
kindness  they  were  accustomed  to  ;  breeziness  they 
knew  to  satiety ;  Mrs.  Abel's  generous  pity  almost 
inconvenienced  them  ;  but  Susie's  veil  of  aloofness 
from  everything  real  wrapped  them  in  gossamer 
of  the  angels  who  have  no  bodies.  "  Isn't  she  a 
nice  lady  ?  "  they  said  among  themselves,  feeling 
that,  where  she  was,  neither  shame  nor  hope  of 
doing  well  eventually,  nor  gratitude  for  tolerance 
would  be  expected  of  them.  "  It  must  be  nice  to  be 
a  lady  and  able  to  do  what  yer  like  without  any  'arm 
coming  of  it,"  was  what  they  mostly  thought,  in 
place  of  the  bitter  reflections  that  stung  them  in  the 
presence  of  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  What  does  she  know 
about  it  ?  "  they  were  used  to  mutter,  when  that 
excellent  visitor  explained  to  them  the  duties  of 
self-respect,  the  necessity  for  self-control,  the  joys 
of  home  that  they  had  forfeited,  and  the  useful- 
even-though-damaged  lives  they  might  yet  lead. 
"  That  there  Jack,  I  used  to  tell  you  about,  would 

279 


28o  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

'ave  taught  'er  what  for,"  was  a  favourite  comment 
of  one  of  them  after  these  occasions.  "  Telling  us 
as  men  is  what  we  makes  them,  and  'adn't  ought  to 
be  encouraged  1  'E  don't  want  much  encouragin', 
she'd  find,  if  she  got  'im  'ome,  in  spite  of  'er  face." 
It  seems  almost  a  pity  that  this  inmate  could  not 
have  heard  Susie  second  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the 
committee  at  the  Town  Hall ;  for  one  feels  that 
justice  was  hardly  done  to  Mrs.  Carpenter,  while 
Susie,  who  had  said  the  same  thing  in  other  words, 
was  so  much  admired.  But  that,  of  course,  was 
never  known,  and  probably  if  it  had  been,  her 
manner  and  her  expression  would  have  caused  a 
different  interpretation  to  be  put  upon  her  words. 
The  inmates  would  have  pictured  themselves  as 
partakers  in  a  scene  of  innocent  pleasure,  ended  in 
sorrow  by  the  devil,  while  Mrs.  Carpenter  only 
succeeded  in  offending  them  by  the  suggestion  of 
mischief  done  to  an  honest  fellow. 

"  'Ain't  she  a  nice  lady  I  "  they  repeated  in  admira- 
tion. "  I  do  like  'er  'at,  and  the  way  it  is  done  at 
the  back.  Just  pass  my  cup  up  along  there, 
Veronica,  would  you  ?  " 

"  Give  old  pasty-face  something  to  do  for  'er 
living,"  said  Veronica,  as  she  passed  the  cup  up 
the  line,  to  where  the  under-matron  was  presiding 
over  the  urns. 

"  You  know,  some  of  them  are  such  nice  girls," 
Mrs.  Abel  was  saying  enthusiastically  to  Susie  at 
the  same  moment.  "  I  can't  tell  you  what  splendid 
natures  they  have.  That  one  down  there — Veronica 
Baker — it's  the  saddest  history,  but  I  won't  tell 
you  now.  She  is  simply  devoted  to  the  baby — such 
a  darling  it  is — and  I  am  hoping  to  get  her  a  really 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  281 

good  job  where  she  can  keep  it  with  her.  It  is  with 
her  mother  at  present." 

"  I  do  hope  the  old  woman  is  good  to  it,"  said 
Susie.  "  It  would  be  terrible  if  anything  happened 
to  it  while  the  mother  is  here.  That  is  th_e  worst 
of  Homes  I  always  think,  although  they  are  so 
necessary  and  splendid  in  every  way.  But  so  few 
of  them  are  able  to  arrange  to  keep  the  mothers 
and  children  together,  and  it  does  separate  them  so 
in  cases  where  it  isn't  possible.  Don't  you  think 
there  is  that  about  them  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  then  what  can  one  do  ?  "  said  Mrs. 
Abel  a  little  sadly.  "  One  can't  leave  them  to  go 
on  with  the  life,  and  in  many  cases  it  is  better  that 
the  child  should  be  sent  to  some  place  that  is  known 
to  be  all  right,  so  that  the  mother  may  not  be 
hampered  in  finding  work.  It  goes  against  them 
very  much  with  some  people  if  the  child  is  seen." 

"  I  do  think,"  said  Susie,  "  that  if  the  girls  could  be 
got  to  see  before  they  go  so  far  what  will  happen  if 
they  do,  it  might  prevent  them.  It  seems  to  me 
sadder  than  any  amount  of  difficulty  in  making 
ends  meet." 

"  Yes,  indeed,  it  does,"  said  Mrs.  Abel,  greatly 
touched,  poor  little  thing.  "  When  I  think  of 
my  own  home  and  how  difficult  things  are  just 
now,  and  yet  how  we  have  been  kept  from  all 
unhappiness,  I  think  I  hardly  know  how  to  be 
thankful  enough." 

"  It  must  be  so  delightful  to  have  your  husband 
with  you  in  everything,"  Susie  said  with  a  little 
sigh.  "  It  must  make  up  for  any  anxiety.  If  one 
is  thoroughly  understood  nothing  else  matters. 
I  was  so  glad  you  did  so  well  with  the  sale  of  work 


282  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

in  the  summer.  Drink  is  really  another  of  the 
worst  problems,  I  think.  Do  you  rind  many  in  your 
Home  are  any  better  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  any  of 
them  are  really  cured,"  said  Mrs.  Abel.  "  But  a 
great  many  have  gone  out  and  kept  steady  for 
several  years,  and  now  and  then  we  hear  from 
them  that  they  are  doing  well.  But  of  course  some 
of  them  relapse  and  then  they  sometimes  come  back 
for  a  time.  But  if  we  get  them  quite  early  on  I 
believe  there  is  every  chance  of  their  keeping 
straight.  Only  it  is  so  difficult  to  persuade  them 
to  come  in  then." 

"  What  a  pity  it  is  that  wine  was  ever  invented," 
said  Susie.  "  I  can't  think  what  people  want  with 
it.  It  only  makes  them  noisy  and  stupid ;  not 
really  cheerful." 

"  I  don't  think  it  is  wine  that  matters,"  said 
Mrs.  Abel.  "  In  fact  a  little  of  it  would  do  them 
good  if  they  could  get  it.  It  is  the  beer  and  spirits 
that  are  so  bad,  because  they  take  such  quantities 
of  beer  and  so  little  spirits  affects  them,  especially 
the  stuff  they  can  afford.  My  husband  doesn't  at 
all  believe  in  actual  teetotalism,  except  as  a  help 
to  those  who  can't  keep  away  from  it.  The  doctor 
says  a  glass  of  port  would  do  him  all  the  good  in 
the  world  in  the  evening,  but  I  can't  get  him  to 
take  it,  just  for  the  sake  of  the  example." 

"  How  splendid  of  him  I  "  Susie  exclaimed. 
"  I  wish  I  could  persuade  my  husband  to  set  the 
example  to  his  men." 

"  You  see,  it  is  the  evenings  that  are  such  a 
temptation,"  Mrs.  Abel  went  on.  "  Their  homes 
are  so  dreadfully  uncomfortable,  with  the  children 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  283 

all  about  and  everything  in  a  mess  and  nothing  to 
do.  Of  course  they  prefer  the  public-houses  and 
the  clubs." 

"  But  if  the  children  went  to  bed  in  proper  time 
and  the  wives  kept  their  sewing  until  the  evening 
it  would  be  quite  simple,"  Susie  declared.  "  They 
seem  to  have  no  idea  of  time." 

"  Still,  I  know  myself  that  it  is  not  easy  to  have 
everything  straight  by  the  evening,"  Mrs.  Abel 
sighed.  "  Now  my  little  maid  has  gone  and  I 
have  everything  to  do  for  the  children,  besides  the 
house  and  the  parish,  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  be 
all  neat  and  good  tempered,  and  ready  to  listen  to 
my  husband,  though  I  am  longing  to  hear  all  about 
his  day.  And  then,  you  see,  very  often  with  those 
people  the  children  have  nowhere  to  sleep  except 
the  living-room,  and  there  is  hardly  room  for  them 
all  to  sit  round — and  perhaps  no  fire — and  if  there 
is  illness — and  they  have  no  occupations  to  keep 
them  quiet.  And  besides,  some  of  the  houses  you 
really  can't  make  clean  or  cheerful,  and  if  the  man 
does  get  good  wages  for  a  time  it  all  goes  as  soon  as 
there  is  unemployment  or  if  he  meets  with  an 
accident ;  the  insurance  doesn't  cover  it  all.  At 
least  I  know  my  husband  will  get  his  stipend  what- 
ever happens,  and  people  are  very  kind  and  good. 
We  were  so  touched  by  the  amount  of  the  Easter 
Offering  this  year,  although  it  is  such  a  poor  parish." 

"  Mrs.  Fulton,  would  you  like  to  come  and  see 
the  distribution  of  presents  ?  "  said  the  matron, 
advancing  to  Susie  with  a  smile  that  she  did  her 
best  to  make  genial.  Long  years  of  bringing  the 
passions  of  other  people  into  line  had  made  it 
difficult  for  her  to  relax  at  different  milestones  of 


284  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

the  Almanack  into  the  requirements  of  a  moral 
armistice. 

Susie  followed  her  into  the  next  room,  where  a 
small  Christmas  tree  was  glimmering  and  dropping 
wax  on  to  a  table  ;  round  it,  piled  high,  were  parcels 
with  the  forbiddingly  soft  contours  that  betray 
to  the  experienced  eye  the  presence  of  wool  in 
unattractive  shapes.  Two  smiling  men  with  eye- 
glasses and  gay  waistcoats,  and  Mr.  Abel,  well-bred, 
shabby,  harassed,  devoted  and  obviously  in  need 
of  port  wine,  stood  by  with  sponges,  ready  to  quench 
any  untoward  splutterings  between  the  dim  flames 
and  the  branches  on  which  they  drooped.  Festoons 
of  tinselled  cotton  hung  between  the  pine  needles 
which  still  smelled  of  the  forest,  and  on  the  top 
spike,  precariously  inclined,  was  a  cardboard  Father 
Christmas  with  frosted  boots  and  a  face  like  Mr. 
Price  after  dinner.  The  inmates  crowded  round, 
murmuring  among  themselves  in  drawling  exclama- 
tions peculiar  to  the  class  who  spend  so  much  of 
their  lives  as  onlookers  at  all  kinds  of  pageantry. 

"  Eh,  luk  !  "  they  said.  "  H'm — yes,  it  is,  i'nt 
it !  eh,  to  be  sure  !  See,  Lily,  the  li'l  moonkey  wi' 
th'  baal  in  its  mouth  !  See  Father  Christmas  ? 
Where  ?  Eh,  yes,  a  see  'im.  Seems  a  pity  there 
a'nt  no  children  here  to  see  it.  What's  the  good 
of  it  ?  "  A  terrific  sniff  raised  the  speaker's  nose 
in  wrinkles  almost  into  her  low-growing  hair. 
"  Eh,  luk  1  the  parcel  1  'tis  for  the  paarson  !  " 
Roars  of  laughter  broke  out  while  Mr.  Abel  un- 
wrapped a  neat  silver  cigar-cutter  and  sought  in 
vain  for  words  that  should  combine  truth  with  the 
idea  that  it  was  the  thing  he  was  most  in  need  of. 
Mrs.  Abel  received  a  pocket  manicure  case,  the 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  285 

matron  was  delighted  with  Miss  Gilworth's  Outlook 
oj  the  Saints,  the  under-matron  had  a  sponge, 
"  specially  designed  for  continental  use,"  and  the 
rest  of  the  staff  were  given  various  articles  ranging 
from  penwipers  to  plaster  dogs  with  one  eye  ban- 
daged. The  proceedings  ended  with  a  carol,  in 
which  Susie  joined  with  her  very  kindest  expression 
and  a  most  delicate  voice,  reinforced  by  the  powerful 
bass  of  one  of  the  gentlemen  with  eyeglasses  who 
was  a  member  of  Mr.  Abel's  choir.  Mr.  Abel  moved 
a  vote  of  thanks  in  his  high-pitched  Oxford  plaint, 
and  soon  after  a  piercing  wind  from  the  front  door 
and  a  hum  of  voices  and  flutter  of  aprons  in  the 
passage  betokened  that  the  Mary  Popley  inmates 
would  be  left  to  their  own  reflections  on  a  year  that 
was  about  to  slink  away  like  a  defaulter  with  the 
happiness  they  had  invested. 

Evangeline's  daughter  was  born  between  Christ- 
mas and  the  New  Year.  Teresa  arrived  home  late 
from  her  dinner  at  Mr.  Manley's  and  was  met  by 
Strickland  looking  as  if  she  were  about  to  perform 
some  religious  rite.  Her  cap  lay  across  her  head 
at  an  angle  that  gave  her  a  slightly  mystic  appear- 
ance, her  eyes  were  full  of  indefinite  purpose  and 
hor  mouth  was  set  tight. 

"  Have  you  got  toothache  again,  you  poor 
thing  ?  "  Teresa  exclaimed  the  moment  she  saw  her. 

"  No,  Miss  Teresa  ;  it's  that,"  Strickland  replied 
in  a  hushed  voice.  "  We've  got  the  nurse,  and  the 
doctor  is  coming  along  now.  Mrs.  Fulton  is  up- 
stairs, but  I  was  to  tell  you  there's  nothing  to  worry 
about  and  you  was  to  go  into  the  General's  study. 
I'll  bring  you  a  cup  of  tea  and  then  you'll  go  to 


286  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

bed.  It'll  be  all  over  in  the  morning,  you'll  see. 
You'll  not  hinder  me  by  worrying,  now,  will  you  ? 
For  I've  the  kettles  to  see  to  and  all." 

"  N— no,"  said  Teresa  rather  doubtfully.  "  I 
won't  hinder  you  anyhow,  old  lady.  Go  on  with 
your  fussing  and  don't  mind  me.  But  I  wish  you 
would  come  and  tell  me  when  it  is  there.  I  don't 
suppose  I  shall  be  asleep." 

'  Yes,  you  will,  then,  Miss  Teresa,  or  I  shall  be 
angry.  No,  I  mean  it.  You'll  be  doing  very  wrong 
if  you're  not  asleep.  The  General  is  in  the  study, 
if  you'll  go  up  now,  so  I  needn't  keep  up  the  drawing- 
room  fire." 

"  Strickland — here    a    moment,"    said    Teresa, 
pulling  her  into  the  darkened  drawing-room.      '  Just 
tell  me  before  you  go.     Is  it  very,  very  awful  ?  " 

"  No,  Miss  Teresa,  of  course  it  isn't,"  she  replied 
quite  angrily,  shaking  herself  away.  "  My  brother's 
wife  thinks  nothing  of  it.  It's  what  we've  all 
got  to  go  through — unless  it's  a  poor  thing  like  me 
that  has  no  one.  And  there's  the  nurse  and  doctor 
and  everything  she  can  want.  There's  a  great 
many  that  hasn't— — " 

"  Oh,  yes,  yes,  I  know,"  Teresa  interrupted. 
"  I  shall  stop  my  ears  if  you  say  any  more  of  that. 
I've  finished  with  it.  I'm  not  going  to  hear  any 
more  until  I  can  begin  again.  Strickland,  I'm 
engaged  ;  but  please  don't  tell  them  downstairs. 
I  want  to  do  it  myself  when  it  is  all  over.  Only 
I  am  so  happy  I  had  to  tell  you  ;  and  now  I  have 
come  home  to  be  so  frightened.  Never  mind  ;  you 
see,  I  am  not  in  the  least  worried.  I'm  going  up. 
And  about  twelve  o'clock  I  shall  go  to  my  room — 
and  take  off  all  my  clothes — and  go  to  bed — and 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  287 

put  my  head  on  the  pillow — Oh,  Strickland,  you 
are  an  ass,  aren't  you  ?  How  do  you  suppose  I 
am  going  to  sleep  ?  Well,  good-night."  She  ran 
upstairs  very  quietly  and  went  into  the  study. 

Cyril  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  smoking  and  reading. 
He  looked  round  as  she  came  in  and  said,  "  Well, 
did  you  have  a  good  time  ?  I  suppose  they've 
told  you  about  Chips  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  said.  "  I  shan't  go  to  bed  yet  if 
you  are  not  going.  We'll  wait  together  if  you  like. 
And,  Father — I  saw  David."  She  brought  a  chair 
up  to  the  fire. 

"  And  did  he  see  you  ?  "  Cyril  inquired.  "  You 
please  my  eye  very  much  when  you  are  happy  and 
you've  been  a  withered  little  object  lately." 

"  Well,  that  is  really  about  aU  about  it,"  she 
said.  "  I've  stopped  withering.  You  do  like  David, 
don't  you,  Father  ?  " 

"  I'm  devoted  to  him,"  Cyril  answered.  "  Do  I 
understand  that  you  have  fixed  it  up  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  answered.  "  Oh,  Father,  listen, 
what  was  that  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  hear  anything,"  he  said,  rather 
hastily,  "  but  there's  a  devil  of  a  draught  up 
those  back  stairs.  I  think  I'll  shut  the  passage 
door." 

"  I'll  do  it,"  she  said. 

"  No,  stay  where  you  are."  He  went  out,  shutting 
the  door  after  him,  shut  the  passage  door  that  led 
to  the  top  storey  and  met  Strickland  coming  up. 
"  Keep  that  door  shut,  would  you  ?  "  he  said. 
"  Miss  Teresa's  in  there ;  and  don't  worry  her  to 
go  tombed.  I'll  send  her  when  I  think  it  is  a  good 
plan."  He  went  back  to  the  study. 


288  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  Was  that  Strickland  you  were  talking  to  ?  " 
she  asked.  "  There's  nothing  wrong,  is  there  ?  " 

"  No,  but  I  can't  do  with  her  damned  singing.  I 
told  her  to  wait  until  the  Philharmonic  was  open. 
Now  then,  tell  us  all  about  it,  Dicky  ;  that  is,  as 
much  of  it  as  you  like." 

"  Well,  you  see,  I  refused  him  before,"  she  began 
slowly.  "  He  wouldn't  combine  with  what  I  was 

doing  and  I  wouldn't  give  it  up "  She  stopped, 

and  Cyril  poured  himself  out  a  glass  of  whiskey. 
"  Have  some  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Now  you  know,  dear,  that  is  silly,"  said  Teresa. 
"  I  don't  want  to  take  to  drink  because  I  am  going 

to  be  married Oh,  father,  what  is  that  ? 

Something  is  bothering  me — is  there  a  wind  or 
something  ?  It  was  quite  still  when  I  came 
back." 

Cyril  hesitated  a  moment  and  then  said,  "  You're 
not  the  woman  your  mother  is.  She  thought  me 
very  foolish — I  am  not  sure  she  didn't  say  very 
wrong — for  spending  the  night  in  the  Turkish  bath 
when  you  were  born.  I  should  be  there  now  if 
you  weren't  at  home,  but  if  you  are  going  to  sit 
there  behaving  like  some  damned  fox-terrier  when- 
ever a  door  opens  I  shall  have  to  get  out  the  car  and 
drive  you  round  till  we  both  freeze." 

"  All  right,"  she  said.  "  I  am  sorry,  but  I  didn't 
know  what  it  was.  I  just  felt  creepy." 

They  heard  the  front  door  slam. 

"  That's  the  doctor,"  said  Cyril.  "  Now  you  can 
go  ahead.  The  pilot  is  on  board  and  a  tot  of  rum 
will  be  served  to  all  those  in  favour.  I  wish  you 
would  have  some." 

"  No,  I  am  going  to  have  tea  presently,"  she  said. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  289 

"  I  do  wish  you  wouldn't  interrupt.     I  was  going 
to  tell  you  why  I  changed  my  mind." 

"  Yes  ?  "  he  said,  encouragingly. 

"  Let's  see.     You  see,  the  thing  is  like  this.     I 
think  David  started  with  the  same  idea  that  I  did 
and  I  don't  know  exactly  what  happened  but  he 
found  that  he  hadn't  enough  brains  for  argument, 
so  he  studied  fox-hunting  which  he  had  always  had 
a  passion  for,  only  he  got  slightly  mixed  like  I  did 
about  people  who  live  in  towns.     He  is  really  very 
sensitive  about  cruelty,  and  his  father  gave  him 
such  a  lot  of  money  at  college  that  when  he  found 
anyone  who  wanted  it  he  gave  like  anything ;   and 
when  you  have  once  begun  doing  that  in  person, 
not  just  by  subscription,  it  is  very  difficult  not  to 
feel  that  you  ought  to  be  earning  some  instead. 
But  anyhow  that  is  what  he  did.     And  then  he  had 
to  go  to  Aldwych  to  help  his  father  who  wasn't  well, 
and  then  he  got  interested  in  the  land  and  he  met 
some    people    who    wanted    experiments    done — I 
forget   what   in — and   who   couldn't   afford   to   do 
them  ;   and,  it  is  very  odd,  but  he  seems  to  find  out 
more   by   common   sense  than   I   ever   should   by 
working  and  working  at  an  idea,  trying  to  make  it 
fit  whatever  happens,  because  it  never  does.     As 
soon  as  one  stops  worrying  and  works  at  whatever 
one  can  do  best,  the  idea  one  had  tried  to  fit  on  to 
all  sorts  of  contradictions  seems  suddenly  to  grow 
up  out  of  the  middle  of  one's  work,  with  a  root 
fastened  to  all  the  different  things  it  wouldn't  fit 
before.     It  is  impossible  to  explain  but  I  assure  you 
you  would  have  found  that  happen  if  you  had  ever 
had  an  idea  of  any  sort  or  done  any  work." 
"  I  should  like  to  direct  your  next  piece  of  pur- 


290  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

poseless  labour  to  respecting  the  forces  of  the 
Crown  a  little  if  you  can,"  said  Cyril.  "I'm  damned ! 
No  ideas  and  no  work  !  Do  you  know  who  I  am  ? 
I  suppose  your  mother  is  right.  Marriage  does 
mean  something  to  a  girl." 

"  Why  ?  What  ?  "  she  asked  in  bewilderment. 
"  What  have  I  said  ?  " 

"  Go  on,  my  love  ;  don't  let  me  interrupt  you," 
he  said.  Strickland  came  in  with  some  tea  and  a 
plate  of  sandwiches.  "  I  suppose  it  is  no  good 
offering  you  tea,  sir  ?  "  she  inquired. 

"  No,  thank  you,  I  have  got  everything  I  want," 
he  answered. 

"  I  am  coming  to  bed  in  a  few  minutes,"  Teresa 
said,  nodding  to  her. 

Strickland  looked  appealingly  at  Cyril  and  hesi- 
tated. "  You'd  better  stay  here  a  bit  I  think,"  he 
said.  "  You  won't  sleep  after  that  stuff." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  shall.     I'm  awfully  sleepy,"  she  said. 

Strickland  pulled  herself  together  and  cleared 
her  throat.  "  I'm  sorry,  Miss  Teresa,"  she  said 
boldly,  "  but  there's  been  a  slight  accident  in  your 
room.  Your  hot  water  bottle  leaked,  and  the  bed 
was  wet  through  so  I've  taken  the  things  down  to 
the  fire.  I'll  tell  you  as  soon  as  they  are  dry." 

"  Very  well ;  but  goodness,  how  late  it  is  !  " 
Teresa  said  as  she  glanced  at  the  clock.  "  Nearly 
one.  Has  mother  gone  to  bed  ?  " 

"  Not  yet,"  said  Strickland.  "  She'll  be  down 
by-and-by.  You'll  see  her  if  you  wait  a  little." 
She  shut  the  door  and  Teresa  settled  herself  again 
in  the  armchair  with  her  tea.  "  The  Prices  have  got 
Aldwych  for  another  six  months,"  she  said,  "  but 
David  thought  perhaps  if  we  were  married  in  the 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  291 

spring  I  might  go  out  with  him  to  see  his  place  over 
there  and  help  him  to  settle  up,  and  then  come  back 
when  they  leave.  I  shouldn't  so  much  mind  leaving 
all  of  it  if  I  didn't  go  straight  from  Emma's  office 
to  a  house  with  hot  towel  rails  and  pheasant  for 
breakfast  and  a  peach  house." 

"  Well,  we  all  have  our  troubles,  but  I  feel  if  I 
were  given  my  choice  that  that  is  the  one  I  could 
face  with  most  courage,"  said  Cyril.  "  I  could  tear 
myself  away  from  Emma's  office  more  resolutely 
than  from  almost  any  luxury  I  know.  But  then  I 
can't  live  up  to  your  friend  Mrs.  Vachell,  who  hunts 
with  George  Washington  and  runs  with  Ananias 
from  a  sense  of  duty.  I  admit  I  wasn't  happy  in  the 
office  when  you  took  me  there." 

"  What  are  we  going  to  do  with  Chips  when  she 
gets  well  ?  "  said  Teresa.  "  I  can't  bear  to  go  away 
and  leave  her  here.  Mrs.  Vachell  would  get  her 
altogether  in  time  and  mother  wouldn't  be  any  good. 
Mother  thinks  that  when  she  says  what  fine  creatures 
women  are  and  all  that,  and  when  Mrs.  Vachell 
begins  on  the  same  subject,  they  both  mean  the  same 
thing.  But  they  don't.  Did  you  know  that  ?  Mrs. 
Vachell  is  quite  serious." 

"  Yes,  I  knew  that,"  he  answered.  "  She  told 
me  herself  that  nothing  was  too  bad  to  do  in  the 
cause  of  the  noblest  of  God's  creatures,  and  a  woman 
in  that  frame  of  mind  is  always  beyond  a  joke. 
You  can't  get  it  into  their  heads  that  there  are 
certain  things  that  are  not  done,  such  as  vitriol  and 
so  on.  Not  that  I  have  heard  of  any  of  them  doing 
that,  but  she  seemed  to  be  speaking  inclusively." 

"  No,  that  sort  of  thing  isn't  a  bit  like  her.  Really 
father,  it  isn't.  I  only  meant  that  the  more  de- 


292  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

pressed  Chips  gets  about  being  away  from  Evan 
the  more  Mrs.  Vachell  uses  it  to  make  it  impossible 
for  her  ever  to  go  back.  Chips  is  quite  right  in 
saying  that  she  can't  live  here.  It  would  be  so 
dreary  for  her  and  she  hates  having  no  explanation 
for  it.  People  will  think  that  either  she  or  Evan 
have  done  something  bad.  And  it  is  cruel  to  think 
of  her  without  a  man  for  the  rest  of  her  life  ;  it  is 
far  worse  than  being  a  widow.  I  don't  think  either 
you  or  mother  have  realised  that." 

"  It  hadn't,  as  you  say,  occurred  to  me  that  they 
wouldn't  finish  it  up  sometime.  I  hope  marriage 
doesn't  mean  too  much  to  her  after  all.  I  have 
always  supposed  that  so  long  as  people  mind  their 
own  business  there  is  very  little  to  complain  of." 

As  he  stopped  speaking,  a  long,  high-pitched 
sound,  seeming  to  come  from  nowhere  in  particular 
and  too  faint  to  be  more  than  just  audible,  rose, 
grew  and  died  away  again.  Teresa  turned  white  and 
looked  at  her  father  with  frightened,  questioning 
eyes." 

"  Was  it  a  lie  that  Strickland  told  me  about  my 
hot  bottle  ?  "  she  asked.  "  Didn't  she  want  me  to 
go  up  ?  " 

"  I  expect  not,"  said  Cyril.  "  You  can't  do 
anything.  Would  you  like  me  to  get  the  car  out  ? 
We  can  wrap  up  quite  warm." 

"  No,  what  is  the  good  of  running  away,"  she 
answered.  "  I  have  got  to  know.  But  Strickland 
said  it  was  nothing.  She  was  quite  indignant  and 
was  going  to  tell  me  that  there  are  people  who 
aren't  as  well  looked  after  as  Chips,  but  I  wouldn't 
listen.  Let's  go  on  talking.  I  do  so  want  to  get 
out  of  this  mess  of  pity  on  to  a  road  that  leads 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  293 

somewhere.  It  is  like  being  for  ever  shot  at  and 
hurt  by  something  you  can't  see.  Strickland  is 
wrong.  Evidently  in  the  main  things  one  person 
suffers  as  much  as  another." 

"  I've  often  told  you  you  were  worrying  un- 
necessarily," said  Cyril.  "  I  am  sorry  we  didn't 
send  you  away  just  now,  but  I  never  thought  of  it 
and  your  mother  doesn't  descend  to  details  much, 
as  you  know.  She  takes  the  most  alarming  things 
as  a  matter  of  course.  I  believe  she  was  born  a 
favourite  of  the  gods.  I  found  out  the  other  day 
that  she  has  never  had  a  tooth  out.  I  was  away 
when  Chips  was  born  and,  as  I  told  you,  I  spent 
the  night  of  your  arrival  in  the  Turkish  bath,  so  I 
don't  know  what  happened  ;  but  it  wouldn't  sur- 
prise me  in  the  least  to  hear  she  slept  through  it." 

The  door  opened  and  Susie  came  in.  As  she  stood 
there  for  a  moment  a  smell  unknown  to  Teresa  came 
in  with  the  air  from  the  passage. 

"  What !  are  you  two  still  here  ?  "  she  said  in  the 
gently  reproving  tone  she  used  when  any  of  them 
did  anything  not  wholly  normal.  "  Why  didn't  you 
go  to  bed,  Teresa  dear  ?  I  told  Strickland  to  tell 
you  not  to  worry.  I  hope  you  weren't." 

"Oh  no,"  she  replied,  "  it  wasn't  that.  I  got 
your  message,  but  I'm  not  sleepy.  What  is  that 
odd  smell  ?  " 

"  Just  a  little  something  the  doctor  used  to  give 
her  some  sleep,"  said  Susie.  "  I  think  I  shall  wait 
here  until  he  conies  down."  She  had  left  the  door 
open  and  Teresa  sat  tense  and  agonised,  dreading 
the  sound  that  might  come  again  at  any  moment. 
But  everything  was  quiet.  Strickland  shuffled  down 
the  back  stairs  and  shut  the  kitchen  door.  Cyril 


294  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

got  up  and  shut  the  door  of  the  study  and  drew  up 
another  chair. 

"  Well,  and  how  did  your  dinner  go  off  ?  "  Susie 
asked.  "  Did  you  see  David  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Teresa.  "  He — he  enjoyed  himself 
very  much  in  the  Argentine." 

"  How  nice.  And  is  he  going  back  or  is  he  going 
to  take  up  Aldwych  again  ?  I  do  hope  he  will." 

"  Yes,"  she  said  still  more  nervously.  "  Yes — 
we  are  going  to  take  it  up  together — we  arranged — 
I  hope  you  don't  mind.  I  got  a  little  worried  with 
Chips  and  everything,  or  I  should  have  told  you. 
I  really  came  home  to  tell  you — I " 

"  My  darling,  I  quite  understand,"  said  Susie. 
"  Don't  trouble  to  explain.  I  am  so  glad  that  you 
have  come  to  see  what  a  dear  fellow  he  is.  I  always 
told  you  he  was  a  great  deal  nicer  than  you  thought ; 
but  you  wouldn't  believe  me." 

Teresa's  just  feeling  of  indignation  gave  way  to  a 
second  thought  that  she  had  much  rather  her  mother 
supposed  her  not  to  have  cared  for  David  before, 
than  that  she  should  suspect  her  of  having  listened 
to  wisdom  on  the  subject  of  a  prudent  marriage. 

"  And  so  that  is  all  settled  !  "  Susie  continued, 
warming  her  toes  peacefully.  "  And  when  dear 
Evangeline  is  strong  again  we  must  make  another 
effort  to  put  that  right.  And  then  we  shall  have 
nothing  left  to  wish  for,  shall  we  ?  Evan  is  a  silly 
fellow,  really.  I  wish  he  were  here  now  ;  it  might 
bring  it  home  to  him." 

"  How,  Mother  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  he  might  see  that  women  have  quite 
enough  to  go  through  without  being  teased  about 
their  children  when  they  have  got  them.  All  those 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  295 

stupid  rules  and  that  kind  of  thing !  Really,  you 
know,  I  think  that  anyone  who  has  had  a  child — I 
mean  any  woman,  of  course, — deserves  to  be  let 

alone.     Now  those  poor  women  I  saw  last  week . 

I  don't  know  that  it  is  a  very  nice  subject  for  you, 
Teresa,  but  as  you  have  taken  to  work  among  the 
poor  you  are  bound  to  hear  of  it,  and  you  are  going 
to  be  married  yourself — what  I  was  going  to  say 
is  that  those  poor  women  I  saw  at  Christmas  have 
been  most  foolish,  there  is  no  doubt,  and  the  law 
ought  to  oblige  the  men  to  marry  them.  But  if  it 
won't  do  that,  at  least  it  might  be  made  more  easy 
for  the  mother  to  keep  the  child  with  her  instead  of 
her  living  alone  with  that  matron,  who  I  am  sure, 
is  extremely  kind,  but  with  such  a  cross  face.  The 
poor  little  child  has  to  be  brought  up  elsewhere 
because  the  mother  has  lost  her  character !  Men 
lose  their  characters  quickly  enough  in  the  public- 
house,  and  no  one  says  anything.  They  are  allowed 
to  take  the  bottle  home  with  them,  too,  and  it  is  not 
thought  a  disgrace,  although  they  do  it  deliberately. 

Whereas    a    child "     She    paused,    becoming 

suddenly  aware  that  Cyril's  eye  was  fixed  on  her 
with  delighted  interest.  "  Cyril,  dear,"  she  said, 
"  are  you  sure  you  want  to  wait  up  ?  There  is  really 
no  need." 

"  I  wouldn't  miss  a  word,  Sue,  I  assure  you,"  he 
said  politely.  "  Dicky,  pass  me  the  syphon,  would 
you  ?  "  Teresa  passed  it,  and  said  nothing.  No 
one  spoke  for  a  short  time,  and  then  a  bell  rang  up- 
stairs and  another  sound,  a  sort  of  rapid,  angry 
mewing,  was  heard  as  Susie  opened  the  door  of  the 
study  and  Strickland  vanished  up  the  stairs.  Susie 
disappeared  into  the  passage  and  presently  Strick- 


296  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

land  ran  down  again.  "  It's  a  dear  little  girl,  sir, 
the  doctor  says,"  she  remarked,  thrusting  her  head 
round  the  study  door,  "  and  now  you  get  to  bed,  Miss 
Teresa,  please,  while  I  get  a  cup  of  something  for  the 
nurse.  The  doctor  will  be  pleased  to  join  you,  sir, 
presently,  but  he  won't  stop  to  have  nothing  but  a 
glass  of  wine  and  a  biscuit.  He's  got  another  case 
waiting  for  him  he  says."  She  disappeared  before 
Teresa  had  grasped  the  wonderful  details  of  her 
deshabille.  This  was  indeed  a  new  Strickland, 
or  at  least  one  unknown  to  the  family.  "  My 
brother's  wife  "  and  Evangeline  were  one  and  in- 
divisible in  Strickland's  heart  that  night. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

LADY  VARENS  and  David  stayed  for  some  weeks 
with  Mr.  Manley,  and  then  took  a  furnished  cottage 
by  the  sea,  at  a  place  not  far  from  Millport.  It  was 
a  place  of  everlasting  winds,  sandy  as  the  desert, 
flat  as  a  tablecloth,  ugly  as  every  other  nest  of  the 
speculative  builder.  It  is  true  that  the  owners  of 
the  land  had  imposed  restrictions  on  the  invaders, 
but  the  only  result  of  this  was  to  make  a  certain 
style  of  architecture  a  duty,  instead  of  an  unfortunate 
occurrence,  so  the  town  had  as  little  chance  of  achiev- 
ing beauty  as  a  society  for  the  suppression  of 
marriage  would  have  of  evolving  true  love.  The 
little  caskets  of  the  home,  that  were  dumped  down 
in  groups  along  the  shore,  roofed  to  excess  in  the 
prevailing  fashion,  neatly  gardened  with  rock  plants 
that  could  not  blow  away  and  might  be  dis- 
interred from  an  avalanche  of  sand  without  obvious 
damage,  were  designed  to  catch  the  greatest  possible 
quantity  of  ozone.  Painstaking  mothers,  whose 
husbands  were  occupied  in  Millport,  immured  them- 
selves heroically  there  all  the  year  round  for  the  good 
of  their  offspring,  who  rewarded  them  by  thriving 
exceedingly  on  the  hurricanes  of  health  that  swept 
along  the  mud  flats.  The  tide  rose  from  time  to 
time — generally  in  the  night — ,  took  a  rapid  survey 
of  the  villas,  and  fled  back  into  the  distant  sea. 
Squadrons  of  perambulators  were  marched  daily 

297 


298  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

along  the  most  exposed  part  of  the  shore,  which  the 
speculative  builder  had  kindly  laid  with  asphalt 
for  the  purpose.  There,  prevented  by  stout  iron 
railings  from  being  blown  into  the  sea,  the  mothers 
and  sisters  and  aunts  and  nurses  of  young  Millport 
wrestled  up  and  down  twice  a  day,  their  skirts  lashed 
impedingly  against  their  knees  or  their  calves, 
according  to  whether  they  were  going  to  or  coming 
from,  the  butcher.  Their  faces  were  set  with  a 
permanent  expression  of  having  been  blown  crooked, 
nose  slightly  aslant  and  a  little  richer  in  tone  on  one 
side  than  the  other,  eyes  half  closed  to  keep  out  the 
volleying  sand,  ears  all  but  inside  out,  and  the  mouth 
set  at  the  gasp,  owing  to  the  nostrils  having  been 
banged  to  as  soon  as  the  owner  struggled  out  of  her 
front  door ;  heads  were  mostly  a  little  on  one  side, 
cocked  to  meet  the  shouts  of  a  succession  of  acquaint- 
ances all  endeavouring  to  hear  whether  Reggie 
would  come  to  tea  with  Edna  on  Thursday  or  Friday, 
or  whether  the  bridge  party  began  at  three  or  four. 
But  then,  as  the  inhabitants  say  when  strangers 
are  critical  about  the  place,  "we  do  have  such 
beautiful  sunsets.  They  say  it  is  something  phos- 
phorescent about  the  mud."  So  there's  always 
something  either  way  to  keep  the  balance  between 
good  and  evil. 

Lady  Varens  took  one  of  the  villas  for  a  few 
months.  The  place  more  nearly  resembled  country 
than  any  other  in  the  neighbourhood  where  she 
could  get  a  house ;  it  was  at  least  in  the  open  air, 
or  rather,  as  she  said,  hi  an  open  draught,  and  the 
mud  stayed  where  it  was,  instead  of  going  up  into 
the  sky  and  down  again  all  the  time.  The  sun  shone 
a  little  when  it  was  anywhere  handy,  and  one  could 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  299 

smell  the  sea,  and  even  see  it  for  a  few  minutes  if 
one  looked  sharp  about  it.  There  was  a  golf  course, 
and  a  train  to  bring  Teresa  and  anyone  else  who  had 
sufficient  patience  and  a  solid  enough  frame  to  hold 
together  during  the  requisite  period.  Maids  were 
found  who,  being  attached  by  love  to  the  butcher's 
assistants,  were  willing  to  oblige  a  titled  lady  to 
whom  money  was  no  object.  The  villa  was  designed 
for  a  large  family  and  attendants,  so  when  Evange- 
line  was  well  again,  Lady  Varens  asked  her  to  stay 
for  a  time  with  the  children ;  she  persuaded  her 
that  it  would  be  good  for  them  to  be  blown  into  the 
state  of  solidity  that  comes  to  the  young  of  that 
scourging  place  from  constant  tossing  between  the 
consuming  ozone  and  the  replenishing  butcher. 
Evangeline  accepted,  and  at  the  end  of  a  week  or 
two  the  shadow  of  Millport  and  all  the  human 
vexatiousness  which  had  darkened  the  last  months 
for  her  began  to  stir  and  rise,  taking  with  it  her 
newspaper  problems,  Mrs.  VachelTs  sphinxery  and 
the  episodes  of  her  life  at  Drage  that  were  stored  in 
her  recollection  like  toys  broken  in  a  long-forgotten 
quarrel.  The  dear  inanities  of  that  tune  were 
like  poor  Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee's  nice  new 
rattle  which  had  brought  them  both  out  armed  with 
deceptions  against  each  other,  till  the  monstrous 
crow  they  had  brought  down  frightened  them  apart. 
She  laughed  aloud  one  day  as  she  thought  of  Teresa's 
comparison,  and  presently  she  went  to  the  nursery 
and  brought  Ivor's  copy  of  "  Through  the  Looking 
Glass  "  into  the  drawing-room  and  sat  down  with 
it  in  the  window  seat,  where  she  used  to  watch  the 
sunsets.  She  turned  up  the  part  where  the  quarrel 
begins  about  nothing,  when  Tweedledum  and 


300  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Tweedledee  have  been  sitting  together  under  an 
umbrella.  "  That  is  exactly  like  us,"  she  thought 
and  she  laughed  as  she  read.  "  But  Evan  will  never 
see  that.  I  shall  have  to  explain  the  situation  in 
some  other  way."  Her  thoughts  wandered  back 
down  a  train  of  other  things  that  she  had  tried  to 
explain  to  him.  Before  their  engagement  she  had 
expounded  a  good  deal  and  listened  very  little.  To 
tell  the  truth,  Evan  had  been  attending  more  to  the 
distraction  of  her  presence  than  to  the  matter  of  her 
speech,  but  she  did  not  know  that.  He  had  been 
unaccustomed  to  the  society  of  women  who  lulled, 
and  she  did  lull  his  natural  embarrassment  in  con- 
versation by  the  largeness  of  her  interest  in  every- 
that  went  on  in  the  world.  Such  luxuriant  living 
and  lack  of  analysis  was  new  to  him.  He  had  formed 
an  idea  of  women  from  his  sisters'  giggling  little 
comments  on  every  subject ;  they  inspected  life 
at  too  close  quarters  to  make  their  view  interesting 
to  anyone  with  Evan's  passion  for  Universal  study. 
The  world  was  contained  for  them  in  their  village 
interests  ;  England  was  a  garden  where  God  lived 
and  their  village  was  one  of  His  boundary  lodges  ; 
foreign  countries  were  something  akin  to  a  noble- 
man's other  residences,  managed  by  agents  and  let 
to  strangers ;  the  mission  field  a  wild  region  that 
must  be  brought  into  cultivation.  Evan  had  loved 
his  sisters  while  the  war  was  on,  for  they  thought 
neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left.  They  had 
trotted  out  of  their  village  in  the  wake  of  England, 
Harry  and  St.  George,  never  doubting  that  God 
was  with  them  as  they  bandaged  and  stitched  and 
prayed  that  Ypres  might  hold  out,  and  that  Evan 
and  the  men  from  the  village  might  come  home  safe. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  301 

They  never  spoke  of  the  enemy  as  sheep  or  devils. 
War  was  a  medicine  which  England  had  to  take 
now  and  then  for  the  good  of  her  health,  and  whether 
it  was  against  Zulus,  Boers,  or  Germans  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  village.     The  Graphic  of 
the  past  or  The  Graphic  of  the  present,  depicted 
"  the    dead,"    with    troops   advancing   over   them 
through  smoke,  and  dropping  as  they  came ;   or  a 
hillock  and  a  gun  and  a  few  figures  lying  bandaged — 
perhaps  with  the  very  bandages  that  Emily  had 
made — and  that  was  Victory,  and  would  end  some- 
day in  "  The  Soldier's  Return,"  and  a  dinner  in  the 
village.     Such  a  dinner  !     The  sisters  were  at  their 
best  at  such  times  ;  no  one  could  be  cross  with  them  ; 
but  in  private  life,  during  peace,  Evan  found  them 
trying  beyond  words.     He  was  suffering  from  re- 
action against  their  village  interests  when  he  met 
Evangeline,  and  listened  to  her  impersonal  prattle 
of  sunshine  and  wide  spaces  of  the  earth  where 
parties  are  unknown  and  no  man  is  obliged  to  ask 
the  nymph  of  his  choice  how  many  theatres  she 
has  been  to.    Then,  as  we  know,  Evangeline  en- 
couraged him.     She  wouldn't  let  him  keep  himself 
to  himself  as  he  had  always  done.     She  forced  him, 
in  the  name  of  politeness  to  his  General's  daughter, 
to  say  something,  and  it  had  to  be  something  true. 
She  refused  all  substitutes  for  his  treasures ;   so  he 
brought  them  out  one  at  a  time,  and  she  handled 
them   so  respectfully,  owing  to   a   "  gentleman's " 
instinct,  which  was  part  of  her  inheritance  from 
Cyril,  that  in  the  end  he  married  her  ;   married  her, 
poor  dear,  supposing  her  to  be  what  he  called  a  lady. 
Then  after  a  time  they  began  to  quarrel.     He  said  his 
nice  new  rattle  was  spoiled,  his  lady  was  not  lady- 


302  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

like.  She  always  behaved  "  like  a  gentleman " 
towards  him,  but  that  wasn't  right ;  she  must  behave 
like  a  lady.  Then  Evangeline  said  that  she  had 
done  nothing  to  the  rattle.  It  was  just  as  it  was 
when  he  first  got  it.  So  he  pointed  to  Mrs.  Vachell 
and  said  that  was  what  he  wanted  his  rattle  to  look 
like,  a  ladylike  woman  who  could  understand  a  man's 
idea  of  the  way  he  wanted  his  sons  brought  up. 
They  fought  battles  and  separated  in  fear  of  the 
darkness  that  came  down  over  everything  after 

that  and  now .     "  Really,  really,"  she  thought, 

"it  is  too  silly  for  anything.  He  knows  by  now 
that  Mrs.  Vachell  was  having  him  on  and  never 
cared  twopence  for  what  he  said.  If  he  could  know 
that  I  love  him  he  might  see  that  his  rattle  isn't 
broken  at  all.  After  all,  we  were  happy — .  Ivor 
doesn't  seem  to  mind  very  much  whether  he  is 
approved  of  or  not.  Evan  wouldn't  find  his 
'  moulding '  made  much  difference  in  a  year  or 
two's  time,  and  Father  says  Ivor  is  all  right ;  he 
is  not  afraid  of  things  and  tells  the  truth  ;  and 
perhaps  Evan  might  let  him  alone  if  he  came  back 
now.  What  a  good  thing  Susan  is  a  girl.  I  don't 
think  he  would  be  so  keen  about  bringing  her  up 
to  be  ladylike  after  coming  such  a  cropper.  Oh, 
dear  !  I  do  wish  we  could  begin  all  over  again." 
She  remembered  the  daily  event  of  Evan's  home- 
coming when  they  were  at  Drage ;  the  pleasure  of 
his  being  in  to  lunch  unexpectedly  ;  his  atrocious 
singing  while  he  had  a  hot  bath ;  the  general 
disturbance  in  every  room ;  the  comfortable, 
foolish  conversations ;  the  friendly  disputes  and 
dear  kisses  ;  one  or  two  tiresome  occurrences,  as 
when  there  was  a  drunken  cook  to  be  dealt  with  and 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  303 

people  coming  to  dinner  and  Evan  was  so  decent 
and  helpful.  Then  a  happy,  out-of-door  summer, 
and  later  on  their  eagerness  about  Ivor.  After  that, 
Evan  began  to  shun  the  nursery  foolishness  and  she 
had  got  bored  by  his  details  of  tinkering  with  the 
little  car  he  bought.  They  had  gone  to  Millport 
one  Christmas  and  Ivor  had  screamed  a  good  deal, 
and  the  nurse  complained.  There  were  no  com- 
plaints now.  Everything  went  like  clockwork,  and 
life  was  dull  as  ditchwater  with  no  man  to  promote 
irrationality  by  treating  all  episodes  with  common 
sense.  No  household  can  be  really  merry  without 
someone  to  supply  the  spectacle  of  common  sense, 
meeting  with  little  accidents  from  the  mischievous 
contradictions  of  the  human  heart.  Presently 
David  came  in. 

"  You  can't  see  to  read  there,  can  you  ?  "  he 
said. 

"  I  wasn't  reading,"  she  answered.  "  I  was 
wondering.  I  must  do  something  about  Evan,  do 
you  know  ?  It  isn't  really  a  quarrel  if  you  come  to 
think  of  it." 

David  looked  at  her  inquiringly,  and  sat  down 
on  the  window  seat.  "  I  wonder  what  I  had  better 
do.  Go  out  to  him,  or  what  ?  " 

"  The  children  would  be  all  right  with  us  here,  but 
I  suppose  you  would  want  them,"  he  said.  "  Your 
husband  has  never  thought  of  leaving  the  army,  has 
he  ?  He  could  get  something  to  do  in  England 
that  would  probably  pay  him  better." 

"  What  sort  of  thing  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  don't  know,  but  I  could  find  out.  I  know 
some  engineering  people." 

Evangeline   was   silent.    "  I   haven't   the   least 


304  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

idea  when  it  began,"  she  said,  after  a  few  minutes' 
thought. 

"  Have  you  tried  writing  to  him  ?  "  he  suggested. 

"  No,  not  yet." 

"  Does  he  know  about  Susan  ?  " 

"  Dicky  wrote,"  said  Evangeline. 

"  There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  out  of  the 
army,"  he  remarked. 

"But  how  am  I  to  put  that?  What  shall  I 
say  ?  " 

"  Just  tell  him,"  said  David ;  "  there's  no 
difficulty  in  that." 

"  Oh,  David  !  "  said  Evangeline  in  despair,  "  don't 
go  on  saying  there's  no  difficulty  in  anything.  I 
daresay  there  isn't  if  you  can  do  the  things,  but  just 
think  of  it !  He  went  away  in  the  blackest  huff 
you  ever  saw,  and  all  about  nothing,  so  there  is,  in  a 
way,  nothing  to  begin  on.  I  can't  say,  '  Are  you 
still  angry  ?  '  because  he  must  be,  or  he  would  have 
written.  I  can't  say,  '  I  am  not  angry  any  more/ 
because  I  wasn't.  I  was  depressed  and  frightened 
to  death." 

David  sat  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  slowly 
swinging  his  legs  and  gazing  at  the  floor,  wrapped  in 
thought.  "  I  don't  think  I  should  think  at  all," 
he  advised.  "  I  should  just  take  a  pen  and 
write." 

"  Would  you  take  a  J  pen  or  a  quill  pen  ?  " 
Evangeline  inquired,  while  she  tossed  the  volume 
of  "  Alice  "  backwards  and  forwards. 

"  Either,"  he  replied.  "  There's  no  difficulty  in 
that."  She  all  but  threw  the  book  at  his  head, 
but  refrained.  "  No  difficulty  at  all,"  he  repeated, 
with  his  eye  on  the  book. 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  305 

"  Can  I  say  you  thought  he  could  get  a  job  in 
England  ?  "  she  said. 

"  Yes,  if  you  like." 

"  But  do  you  think  I  had  better  ?  " 

"  I  shouldn't  begin  with  it,"  said  David. 

"  But  you  think  I  might  put  it  in  at  the  end  ?  " 

"  I  should  see  how  the  letter  looks  when  it  is 
done.  If  it  seems  to  fit,  put  that  in." 

"  I  suppose  you  are  doing  your  best  to  be  helpful." 

"  I'd  do  anything  I  could  for  you." 

"  But  you  don't  know  how  frightening  he  is  when 
he  just  turns  his  back.  Suppose  he  says,  '  No  '." 

"  Then  you  might  have  to  go  out  there." 

"  What !   and  just  walk  up  to  him  ?  " 

"  Yes,  or  else  wait  till  he  came  in." 

"  And  what  should  I  say  ?  " 

"  You'd  have  to  tell  him  you  had  come." 

"  I  see." 

"  I  am  going  to  see  where  Dicky  is,"  he  said, 
getting  off  the  window  seat.  "  I  really  came  in  to 
look  for  her.  You  had  better  have  a  light."  He 
brought  a  small  lamp  over  from  the  writing-table 
and  fastened  it  to  a  switch  beside  her.  Then  he 
got  a  blotting  book  and  some  paper  and  envelopes 
and  took  a  fountain  pen  from  his  pocket.  "  That 
will  write,  you'll  find,"  he  said,  as  he  laid  the  things 
by  her  and  then  he  went  out. 

She  took  up  the  paper  and  turned  it  over  ;  paused, 
and  took  up  the  pen.  It  was  rather  like  the  pre- 
liminaries to  a  letter  written  by  planchette,  when 
the  fingers  are  loose  upon  the  board  and  the  eye 
fixed  on  vacancy.  Presently  she  began  and  wrote 
a  few  words  rapidly,  stopped,  wrote  again,  and  this 
time  she  was  off.  She  filled  the  four  sides  of  the 


306  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

paper  with  what  she  wrote,  and  then  folded  it, 
screwing  up  her  eyes  resolutely.  "  I  daren't  read 
it,"  she  said  to  herself,  and  pushed  it,  with  shaking 
fingers,  into  the  envelope,  stuck  it  down  and 
addressed  it.  Then  she  went  into  the  hall  and 
opened  a  cupboard,  groped  in  the  dark  for  a  coat,  and 
took  the  first  she  touched,  which  happened  to  be 
David's.  She  slipped  her  arms  into  it,  and  without 
stopping  for  fastenings,  wrapped  it  round  her  and 
opened  the  outer  door.  The  pillar  box  was  about 
twenty  yards  away  and  the  letter  was  posted  before 
anything  but  the  speed  of  her  actions  had  time  to 
guide  her  thoughts.  When  it  was  done  she  felt  as 
if  she  had  given  the  world  a  kick  and  sent  a  villa  or 

two  toppling  about  her  ears.  "  Oh ! "  she 

thought,  and  "  Oh !  suppose  it  doesn't  work  !  " 

She  ran  back  into  the  house  and  flung  David's  coat 
upon  a  seat  without  thinking.  Then  she  went  to 
the  drawing-room  and  drew  the  curtains  and  sat 
down  by  the  fire.  "  Suppose  I  should  have  to  go 
out,"  she  thought.  "  Suppose  he  wouldn't  look 
at  me.  Suppose  he  doesn't  care  for  old  times  after 
all."  She  was  still  sitting  there  when  Lady  Varens 
came  in.  "I  thought  there  was  no  wind  this 
afternoon,"  she  remarked,  "  but  there  is  something  ; 
I  think  it  must  be  suction,  because  there  is  not  a 
twig  stirring,  but  my  hat  was  drawn  off  my  head 
and  my  eyes  are  full  of  sand.  Have  you  been  out  ?  " 

"  Only  to  the  letter  box,"  said  Evangeline.  "  I 
wrote  to  Evan  and  raced  out  to  post  it  before  I  had 
time  to  think." 

"  What  made  you  do  that  ?  "  Lady  Varens  asked. 

"  David,"  she  answered.  "  He  kept  repeating 
that  there  was  no  difficulty.  If  anyone  goes  on 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  307 

saying  a  thing  often  enough  I  begin  to  believe  it, 
and  he  went  on  and  on." 

"  But  I  don't  understand  yet,"  Lady  Varens 
said.  "  What  sort  of  a  letter  was  it  ?  " 

"  Just  a  nice  letter.  There  are  a  great  many 
things  that  he  may  have  forgotten.  I  haven't. 
It  was  all  right,  you  know,  once." 

"  David  thinks  Evan  might  leave  the  army,"  she 
went  on  presently.  "  I  shouldn't  have  to  go  out 
then — unless  he  won't  answer." 

"  What  would  he  do  if  he  left  ?  "  asked  Lady 
Varens. 

"  I  don't  know,  but  David  seemed  to  have  some 
idea  in  his  mind." 

"  Then  I  expect  if  he  seemed  to,  he  had.  If  he 
goes  after  a  fox  there  generally  is  one." 

The  post  to  Egypt  is  not  a  very  long  one,  but 
measured  by  the  emotions  Evangeline  went  through 
between  the  earliest  day  when  Evan's  answer  could 
be  expected,  and  the  day  when  it  came,  the  interval 
was  about  a  year  and  a  half.  The  extra  length  of 
time  was  put  in  three  strips.  One  between  the 
moment  when  the  postman  knocked  at  the  front 
door  and  the  time  it  took  the  maid  to  examine  and 
bring  up  the  letters.  The  second  was  when  Evange- 
line was  out  in  the  afternoon  and  remembered  that 
another  post  would  be  there  when  she  got  back  ;  it 
took  the  length  of  several  days  to  look  at  the  letters 
on  the  hall  table  as  she  crossed  the  threshold  and 
judge  from  their  appearance  whether  they  were  all 
circulars.  The  third  age  was  when  she  and  Teresa 
were  talking  in  their  bedrooms  before  going  to  bed 
and  went  through  their  nightly  review  of  all  the 


3o8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

things  he  would  be  likely  to  say,  and  compared 
them  with  the  likelihood  of  his  saying  nothing  at 
all.  The  nights  were  all  right,  for  Evangeline,  when 
in  health,  would  sleep  though  the  earth  cracked 
asunder.  One  day  people  came  to  lunch  and  stayed 
talking,  so  she  did  not  go  out,  and  the  maid  brought 
the  letters  to  Lady  Varens  before  anyone  had 
remembered  the  postman. 

"  Here's  yours,  Evangeline,"  Lady  Varens  said, 
passing  it  to  her.  "  Do  you  know  whether  the 
children  have  gone  out  yet  ?  I  wanted  them  to  call 
at  the  butcher's  for  me.  He  didn't  send  the  mutton 
I  ordered  this  morning." 

"  I'll  go  and  see,"  said  Evangeline,  and  she  carried 
off  her  letter.  Ten  minutes  or  a  quarter-of-an- 
hour  went  by,  and  then  Ivor  came  in  dressed  for 
going  out. 

"  Mother's  being  a  dog  on  the  stairth,"  he  said. 
"  It's  dangerous ;  you'd  better  not  go  past,  but 
we're  going  to  do  your  message  now  if  Nurth  can 
get  past." 

"  Can't  you  say  your  s's  yet,  darling  ?  "  said  the 
visitor.  "  Well,  I'm  quite  shocked !  Come  and 
tell  me  where  you  are  going." 

"  Can't  thtop,"  said  Ivor.  "  You  oughtn't  to 
path  remarkth.  Good-bye." 

He  went  out,  leaving  the  door  open,  and  Teresa 
got  up  and  shut  it.  She  heard  cacklings  from  the 
baby  and  Ivor  and  respectful  protests  from  the  nurse 
near  the  top  landing.  "  Now  go  off,"  she  heard 
Evangeline  say  in  a  tone  she  had  nearly  forgotten. 
"  I  don't  know  where  the  dog  has  gone  ;  probably  to 
the  butcher's.  You  may  find  him  there."  Teresa 
shut  the  door  behind  her.  "  Chips !  "  she  called 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  309 

gently,  "  shall  I  come  up  or  are  you  coming 
down  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  what  I  am  going  to  do,"  said  a 
dishevelled  head  through  the  banisters.  "  What 
about  those  people  ?  '  Massacre  them  all !  '  as  the 
Peace  Delegate  said."  Nurse,  carrying  the  baby, 
brushed  past  with  an  apology,  and  went  down, 
herding  Ivor  before  her. 

"  It  is  quite  all  right,"  said  Evangeline.  "  Very 
much  all  right.  Excessively  all  right."  Teresa  sat 
down  on  a  lower  step. 

"  David  is  clever,  isn't  he  ?  "  she  remarked  with 
pleasure. 

"  I  thought  of  it  first,"  said  Evangeline.  "  He 
only  suggested  writing." 

"  Well  what  is  going  to  happen  ?  Are  you  going 
out  or  what  ?  " 

"  No,  he  says  Joseph  Price  offered  him  a  job  in 
their  works  when  the  regiment  was  sent  out,  but  he 
refused.  If  he  can  still  get  it  he  will  clear  out." 

"  Why  did  he  refuse  it  before  ?  "  asked  Teresa. 

"  Because  of  Ivor  I  think — but  we  won't  go  into 
that." 

"  Where  is  the  Price  place  ?  Would  you  have 
to  be  in  Millport  ?  " 

"  No,  it  is  a  new  one  they  have  started  somewhere 
near  London.  I  forget  what  the  name  is ;  it  is 
somewhere  I  never  heard  of  except  that  I  know 
some  famous  person  was  born  there." 

"  Hush  !  "  said  Teresa.  "  They're  coming  out. 
Let  me  up,  quick  !  "  They  both  disappeared  into 
Evangeline's  room  as  the  drawing-room  door 
opened. 

"Yes,    he's   a   thoroughly   decent    filer,"    said 


3io  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Joseph  Price  to  his  father,  that  evening.  "  Marv'llous 
engineer,  I'm  told.  But  'i  course,  it's  just  's  you 
like." 

"  What  does  he  want  to  leave  the  army  for  ?  " 
inquired  Mr.  Price  suspiciously.  "  Nothing  fishy 
about  it,  I  suppose  ?  The  army's  a  very  good 
profession  for  a  man  that  has  got  up  in  it." 

"  'T's  not  lucrative,  very,"  observed  Joseph, 
"  nor  int'resting  exactly,  I  should  think.  And 
Egypt's  a  tedious  sort  of  place ;  nothing  t'  do 
except  learn  about  it  and  so  on ;  th'  sort  of  thing 
Vachell's  good  at.  You  know,  so  far  as  Hatton's 
concerned  I  c'n  understand  a  man  pr'f erring  to 
use  his  intell'gence  in  the  panoply  of  war,  rather 
than  th'  executive ;  specially  if  there's  nothing  t' 
execute,  if  you  see  what  I  mean.  And,  aft'r  all, 
the  sort  of  thing  he'd  be  doing  f'r  us  might  be 
useful  in  all  sorts  of  ways  in  'nother  war.  There's 
no  earthly  reason,  if  you  come  t'  think  of  it,  why 
he  shouldn't  join  up  again  'n  that  case  and  take  th' 
thing  up  where  he  left  it." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  Mr.  Price,  "  but  that's  not  the 
point.  What  I  want  to  find  out  is,  has  he  any 
business  capacity  apart  from  this  talent  ?  " 

"  'Mense  capacity,  I  b'lieve,"  said  Joseph. 
"  It's  his  strong  point." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  What  experience  have 
you  of  him  ?  " 

"  When  I  was  at  Drage  the  filers  talked  of  nothing 
else.  He  was  the  very  man  that  ought  to  have 
taken  over  your  plant  then." 

"  But  surely  he  was  in  France  at  that  tune," 
said  the  perplexed  parent. 

"  Yes,  I  know,  but  everyone  was  going  backwards 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  311 

and  forwards  all  th'  time,  and  they  all  knew  what 
th'  others  were  doing.  There  was  a  story  about  him, 
I  r'member " 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Mr.  Price,  as  his  son  stopped. 

"  No,  you  must  get  him  t'  tell  it  you  himself ;  I 
might  spoil  it.  But  kait  sairysly,  Dad,  he's  the 
very  filer  you're  looking  for." 

"  Why  are  you  so  keen  about  this  ?  "  asked  Mr. 
Price,  frowning  to  himself.  "  You're  not  after  the 
wife,  are  you,  eh  ?  " 

"  No,  my  dear  dirty  old  man,  I'm  not,  and  you 
mustn't  say  that  kind  'f  thing  now  ;  't's  not  done." 

"  I  don't  see  why  not,"  his  father  remarked. 
"  There's  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of.  I  remember 
a  time  when  a  lot  of  jobs  were  handled  that  way, 
but  people  are  mealy-mouthed  now.  Well,  write 
and  say  we'll  try  him,  if  you  like." 

"  I've  his  letter  'f  acceptance  here,  as  a  matt'r 
of  fact,"  said  Joseph.  "  Subject,  of  course,  t'  your 
approval.  I  sounded  him  more  'r  less  befur  he 
went  away,  but  it  didn't  appeal  t'  him  then.  How- 
ever, Egypt's  kait  'mpossible  they  tell  me,  f'r  a 
young  family  ;  flies  get  int'  the  milk,  'n'  so  on.  I'll 
fix  it  up  with  him  for  you,  'f  you  like.  By  th'  bye, 
when  exactly  d'  we  clear  out  'f  here  ?  " 

"  In  June,"  replied  his  father.  "  It's  a  great 
disappointment  to  me,  the  whole  thing.  I  had 
thought  of  settling  down  here  and  leaving  you  with 
a  decent  place  to  call  your  own.  However,  there 
are  plenty  more  in  the  market.  I  shouldn't  be 
surprised  if  Brackenbury  didn't  come  up  for  sale 
some  time,  and  of  course  this  doesn't  hold  a  candle 
to  it." 

"  If  you're  thinking  of  me,  I'd  leave  it,"  said 


312  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Joseph.  "  You  know,  the  thing's  hardly  done  't 
all  now.  You  won't  find  any  decent  filers  left  in 
houses  like  this  in  a  year  or  two,  I  b'lieve.  No- 
body's got  'ny  money,  except  a  few  people  like  you, 
and  you  might  b'  left  stranded  here  with  practic'lly 
no  one  to  talk  to.  Personally,  I  should  say  th'  thing 
to  do  is  to  live  's  quietly  and  comf  rtably  as 
possible,  and  say  we've  lost  th'  money.  You'd  find 
yourself  in  a  far  better  set  t'-morrow." 
"  Tut !  nonsense  !  "  said  his  father." 
"  'T's  true,  I  'ssure  you.  I've  been  sairysly  c'n- 
sidering  putting  in  a  couple  'f  hours  a  day  at  the 
'lectric  light  plant  at  Brackenbury.  Th'  Duke's 
fairf'lly  keen  on  getting  his  daughters  off,  and  they 
won't  look  't  anybody  'nless  he's  a  mechanic  'r  dust- 
man or  that  kind  'f  thing.  Two  'f  them  are  starting 
'n  old-fashioned  inn  and  calling  it  '  Th'  Star  'nd 
Garter.'  They  want  t'  have  th'  old  filer's  trophies 
framed  t'  stick  up  outside.  'T's  an  awflly  jolly 
little  idea  'f  you  come  t'  think  of  it." 

We  will  here  leave  Mr.  Price  to  his  reflections. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

"  WELL  now,  tell  me,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  drawing 
her  chair  near  to  Mrs.  VachelTs  tea-table.  "  What 
is  all  this  about  the  Hattons,  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  heard  anything,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  What  have  they,  or  rather,  what  has  she,  been 
doing  ?  " 

"  Haven't  you  heard  that  he  is  coming  home  ?  " 

"  Let  me  see,  where  was  it  he  went  to  ?  Egypt, 
wasn't  it  ?  I  haven't  seen  Evangeline  for  some 
time." 

"  Amy,"  Mrs.  Carpenter  said  earnestly,  wedging 
her  large  face  close  up  to  Mrs.  Vachell,  "  tell  me 
now — you  know  I  never  repeat  things — what  did 
happen  then  ?  You  know  people  say  all  sorts  of 
things,  and  some  of  them  have  really  said  so  much 
about  you  that  I  want  to  be  able  to  contradict 
them." 

"  You  can  contradict  them  all,  certainly,"  said 
Mrs.  Vachell. 

"  I  may  do  that  from  you,  may  I  ?  " 

"  No,  not  from  me,  from  yourself.  I  don't  know 
what  they  have  said,  but  whatever  it  is,  I  am  sure 
you  can  safely  say  it  is  untrue." 

"  You  really  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  going  to 
Egypt  ?  I  was  told  to-day,  on  the  very  best 
authority,  that  you  had  sent  him  off  because  Evange- 
line— you  know  those  young  wives — they  can't  bear 

313 


314  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

anyone  even  to  look  at  their  husbands,  can  they  ? 
Do  you  know,  I  thought  she  was  quite  strange  in  her 
manner  one  evening  at  our  house  when  he  would 
talk  to  me  all  the  time  about  India.  We  said  some- 
thing about  the  heat,  and  I  remember  I  thought  to 
myself,  '  Yes,  my  dear  boy,  you  would  find  it  very 
hot  indeed  out  there  with  a  wife  who  looks  after  you 
with  those  eyes  ! '  Why,  half  the  women  at  any 
station  would  run  after  him  on  purpose,  if  they  saw 
she  was  jealous." 

"  Yes, — women  !  "  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  How 
these  Christians  love  one  another,  don't  they  ?  We 
are  a  very  united  sex  when  we  are  running  with  the 
hounds  to  show  what  the  hare  can  do  to  please 
them." 

"  Then  it  really  wasn't  you  who  made  him  go  to 
Egypt  ?  "  Mrs.  Carpenter  persisted. 

"  No.  I  am  very  much  flattered  at  being  mis- 
taken for  the  War  Office,  but  it  wasn't  me.  I 
should  like  to  take  the  credit  for  ridding  the  country 
of  the  dullest  regiment  in  England,  but  I  am  afraid  I 
can't  truthfully." 

"  That  is  very  sarcastic  of  you,  dear  Amy,  but  I 
know  you  don't  like  soldiers,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter 
affectionately.  "  You  have  never  mixed  with  them 
enough  to  know  how  honest  and  simple  they  are. 
What  do  you  think  of  General  Fulton,  though, 
really  and  truly  ?  He  is  an  odd  sort  of  man,  isn't 
he  ?  I  get  on  with  him  very  well  because  I  love  his 
humour  and  we  have  great  arguments  together,  but 
I  know  he  is  not  popular  as  a  rule.  He  is  very 
naughty  in  the  things  he  says  to  her  sometimes, 
and  she  never  seems  to  see.  Emmie  Trotter  doesn't 
like  her  at  all ;  she  thinks  she  is  not  genuine,  but 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  315 

I  don't  think  that.  I  think  she  is  perfectly  sincere 
in  the  work  she  does  but  I  don't  think  she  is  business- 
like. Someone  told  me  that  Evan  Hatton  is  coming 
back  and  going  into  business.  Had  you  heard  of 
it?" 

"  Yes,  I  had  heard  that,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell. 
"  And  Teresa  has  given  up  her  work  with  Emma  and 
is  going  to  study  unemployment  from  the  most 
favourable  standpoint,  by  having  nothing  to  do. 
She  is  very  lucky,  I  think,  though  I  couldn't  do  it 
myself." 

"  You  mean  you  don't  care  for  the  Varens'  ?  " 

"  I  know  nothing  about  them  one  way  or  the 
other.  He  used  to  be  in  and  out  of  the  University, 
I  don't  know  what  for ;  learning  to  make  chemical 
manures  perhaps ;  but  I  never  saw  much  of  him. 
He  belongs  to  what  Mrs.  Harding  calls  the  '  polo 
set '  and  they  don't  interest  me." 

"  Oh,  now,  some  of  them  are  very  charming  and 
delightful.  All  the  Brackenbury  set  are  dears. 
Bobo,  as  they  call  him,  is  a  splendid  player  and  a 
real  dear  boy.  However,  the  Duke  says  he  can't 
afford  to  let  him  play  next  year  and  he  must  do 
something.  You  have  heard  about  the  girls  setting 
up  an  inn,  haven't  you  ?  It  is  a  pity,  I  think,  but  as 
Bobo  says,  what  are  you  to  do  ?  He  pretends  he 
is  going  to  run  a  circus,  but  seriously,  I'm  sure  I 
don't  know.  They  can't  keep  themselves  in  the 
army  now,  not  even  in  the  Guards.  But  David 

Varens — how  did  we  get  off  the  track ?  He  is 

all  right,  apparently.  His  father  seems  to  have  left 
him  plenty  of  money,  and  of  course  he  is  not  ex- 
travagant like  Bobo  and  that  terrible  elder  brother. 
Wasn't  it  dreadful  about  him  !  Did  you  say  Teresa 


316  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

is  going  to  give  up  all  her  work  as  soon  as  she 
marries  ?  Now  I  do  think  that  is  a  great  mistake, 
don't  you  ?  All  the  more  reason  she  should  go 
on  with  it  now  that  she  will  have  money.  Of 
course  I  can  see  that  she  couldn't  come  in  every  day 
in  the  same  way,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  she 
shouldn't  visit  and  take  an  interest  in  it  all.  A  few 
meetings  would  be  good  for  her  and  prevent  her 
from  getting  self-centred." 

The  door  opened  and  Mr.  Vachell  was  heard  to 
say,  "  Come  in.  I  think  my  wife  is  in  here,"  and 
Teresa  walked  into  the  room,  followed  by  the  little 
man  with  a  pile  of  books.  "  I  was  bringing  these 
back,"  she  said  to  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  They  are  some 
that  you  lent  to  Evangeline  and  she  had  forgotten 
about  them.  I  am  so  sorry.  I  met  Mr.  Vachell  on 
the  step  and  he  brought  me  up,  but  I  am  afraid  I 
mustn't  stay." 

"  Yes,  you  must,"  said  Mrs.  Vachell.  "  I  haven't 
seen  any  of  you  for  so  long  and  Mrs.  Carpenter  was 
saying  just  now  that  I  am  given  credit  for  all  sorts  of 
things  in  your  family — for  Captain  Hatton's  regiment 
being  sent  to  Egypt  and — what  else  was  it,  Mrs. 
Carpenter  ?  I  have  just  told  her  that  I  never  see 
you,  but  she  is  still  suspicious." 

Teresa  frowned  and  blushed  and  had  nothing  to 
say  for  a  minute.  Then  she  turned  on  Mrs.  Carpenter 
in  sudden  wrath.  "  I  do  wish  women  wouldn't  be 
sweet  when  they  want  to  make  mischief,"  she  said. 
"  I  never  knew  anything  like  this  place.  It  is  like 
a  lot  of  flies  walking  in  muck  and  then  settling  on 
the  jam."  The  expression  on  Mrs.  Carpenter's 
face  moved  her  to  compunction,  and  she  stopped. 
After  all,  the  woman  had  had  children  and  battled 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  317 

with  pain  and  death  and  denied  herself  for  her 
fellow-creatures  in  more  ways  than  Teresa,  for  she 
had  no  love  of  them  to  carry  her  over  the  discomforts 
of  bearing  other  people's  burdens.  If  she  did  gossip 
and  preach  and  plume  herself  by  the  way,  she  was 
entitled  to  that  relaxation,  knowing  no  other.  So 
long  as  Britons  never  shall  be  slaves  let  us  allow  the 
Potters  their  public-house,  the  Carpenters  their  tea- 
table,  the  Fisks  their  blood  and  the  passionate 
philanthropists  their  feast  of  reason  and  flow  of 
soul.  The  Emma  Gainsboroughs  will  go  on  patiently 
and  methodically  clearing  up,  taking  no  notice  of 
themselves,  and  by-and-bye,  as  Susie  so  often 
justly  remarked,  "  Anything  that  is  really  good  is 
sure  to  make  the  rest  seem  so  small  in  com- 
parison." 

"  What  was  it  you  wanted  to  know  ?  "  she  asked 
Mrs.  Carpenter  gently.  "  I  would  so  much  rather 
tell  you,  if  you  are  interested,  than  have  you  going 
about  asking  all  sorts  of  people  whether  they  have 
heard  anything." 

"  Dear  little  Teresa ! "  Mrs.  Carpenter  said, 
recovering  her  usual  smile.  "  What  a  set-down  for 
poor  me  !  You  fierce  little  thing  !  Well  then,  since 
you  ask,  tell  me  what  Evangeline  has  been  doing  to 
set  all  the  tongues  wagging  ?  I  shouldn't  have  liked 
to  ask  you,  dear,  until  you  offered  me  your  con- 
fidence so  sweetly.  I  appreciate  it,  I  assure  you. 
But  you  know  it  is  distressing  to  hear  a  thing  hinted 
at  everywhere  and  not  to  be  able  to  put  it  right 
authoritatively.  Now  we  will  have  it  all  fair  and 

square,  shall  we  ?     Sit  down  there  and  tell  me 

have  they  separated  ?  " 

"  No,  they  haven't,'  said  Teresa.    "  Mrs.  Vachell 


3i8  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

lent  Evangeline  those  books  that  I  have  brought 
back,  and  they  are  all  written  to  dish  up  rows  that 
needn't  happen  if  people's  minds  weren't  as  stuffy 
as  mouldy  cupboards.  Evangeline's  is  like  a  wide 
open  door,  you  know  ;  she  is  not  at  all  stuffy  ;  but 
she  wants  so  much  to  have  everyone  enjoy  every- 
thing they  can  that  she  took  on  the  idea  of  women 
being  oppressed,  and  of  course,  wanted  to  help  to 
let  them  out,  as  she  thought.  That  is  true,  isn't 
it  ?  "  she  turned  to  Mrs.  Vachell. 

Mrs.  Vachell  shrugged  her  shoulders.  "It  is 
true  as  far  as  it  goes,"  she  said.  "  Yes." 

"  Well  then,  you  know  Evan  Hatton,  don't  you," 
Teresa  continued.  She  had  forgotten  her  anger 
against  Mrs.  Carpenter,  and  was  trying  to  tell  the 
story  as  if  she  were  in  a  Court  of  Justice,  presenting 
Evangeline's  case  and  Evan's  as  one  against  the 
world.  "  He  is  not  so  naturally  anxious  for  every- 
one to  be  happy.  In  fact  he  doesn't  mind  whether 
they  are  enjoying  themselves  or  not,  so  long  as  he 
thinks  they  are  doing  what  has  got  to  be  done.  He 
got  really  worried  about  her  trying  to  undo  all  the 
doors  and  locks  everywhere.  I  think  he  got  a 
sort  of  panic  about  it ;  as  if  she  would  or  could 
possibly  have  done  any  harm  !  Anyhow,  he  thought 
it  was  the  thing  to  do,  so  they  had  it  out ;  that  is 
all.  And  now  he  is  coming  back.  They  hated 
being  away  from  each  other,  and  he  is  going  into 
Mr.  Price's  engineering  place,  a  new  one  he  has 
started  near  London.  Now  aren't  you  sorry  you 
helped  to  make  people  think  there  was  some  nasty, 
frowsy  mystery  ?  " 

"  That  is  nonsense,  dear  Teresa,"  Mrs.  Carpenter 
protested.  "  You  ought  not  to  let  yourself  run  away 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  319 

with  such  ideas.  But  I  am  more  than  delighted  it 
is  so  simple  as  you  say.  You  know  Mrs.  Trotter 
had  quite  a  different  impression,  and  I  must  say 
Evangeline  talked  to  her  a  good  deal  when  you  were 
all  together  that  summer." 

"  Yes,  that  is  what  she  does,"  Teresa  ad- 
mitted regretfully.  "  She  talks  to  everybody  as 
if  they  were  all  straight  and  decent,  and  she 
doesn't  realise  what  worms  some  of  them  are. 
Of  course  they  just  mix  whatever  she  says  with 
slime." 

Mrs.  Carpenter  gave  the  little  laugh  which  she 
used  to  express  offence.  "  Hardly  flattering  to  her 
audience,  is  it  ?  "  she  said. 

"  No,  I  didn't  mean  to  flatter  them,"  said  Teresa. 
"  They  can  do  that  for  themselves  when  they  have 
finished.  "  I  was  telling  you  how  it  looks  to  me 
when  I  know  how  Evangeline  loves  all  sunny  and 
kind  things." 

"  I  hear  you  are  going  to  be  married  and  give 
up  all  your  work,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter.  "  I  must 
congratulate  you  and  I  hope  you  will  be  very  happy. 
Aldwych  is  a  lovely  place  and  David  Varens  is  quite 
delightful  I  think.  You  find  you  can't  keep  on  with 
your  poor  people,  don't  you  ?  With  so  many  new 
interests,  I  daresay  it  is  not  easy  for  young  people 
to  think  of  others." 

"  Yes,"  said  Teresa,  her  cheeks  glowing.  "  But 
you  know  you  will  never  make  anything  different 
out  of  Mrs.  Potter,  any  more  than  I  have." 

"  Who  is  Mrs.  Potter  ?  I  don't  remember  her," 
asked  Mrs.  Carpenter. 

"  There  are  some  people  called  Potter  in  that 
long  street — Boaling  Street — just  by  Emma's  office ; 


320  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

but  I  don't  mean  them  alone.  I  was  thinking  of 
them  as  a  class,  and  I  forgot  you  didn't  know  them. 
I  don't  think  either  you  or  I  are  any  good  to  them. 
They  laugh  at  you  for  thinking  you  are  wiser  than 
they  are,  and  they  think  I  am  mad  because  I  keep 
on  supposing  they  are  feeling  the  same  things  as  I  do. 
Emma  understands  everything  they  say  and  is 
never  surprised,  nor  ever  tells  them  anything  about 
herself,  so  they  think  she  is  perfectly  normal  and 
never  suspect  her  of  being  a  lady.  She  is  just '  The 
lady  at  the  depot,'  like  the  girl  behind  the  counter 
is  '  the  young  lady  in  the  shop.'  They  go  to  her 
when  they  want  sensible  things,  and  I  don't  suppose 
they  have  any  more  theory  as  to  why  she  is  there 
than  they  have  about  any  official.  They  probably 
think  she  is  paid  by  the  Government." 

"  And  you  are  really  sure  you  are  not  going  to 
keep  it  up,  even  twice  a  week  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Carpenter. 
Then,  without  waiting  for  further  answer,  she 
changed  the  subject.  "  By-the-bye,  Mr.  Vachell, 
can  you  tell  me  what  the  Sphinx  really  is  ?  Some- 
one was  asking  the  other  day,  and  I  said  you  could 
tell  us  if  anyone  could." 

Teresa  excused  herself  and  went  away,  depressed 
by  what  had  happened.  She  felt  crushed  by  the 
weight  of  the  heaviest  burden  that  society  brings, 
the  failure  to  impress  a  living  thought  on  a 
dead  comprehension.  She  had  offered  sincerity, 
and  been  met  with  the  corpse-like  hand  of 
offence. 

"  Both  those  Fulton  girls  have  been  very  much 
spoiled,"  said  Mrs.  Carpenter,  when  she  had  shut 
the  door. 

When  Teresa  got  home  she  found  David  sitting 


THREE   LOVING  LADIES  321 

stiffly  in  a  chair  beside  Susie,  who  was  knitting  a 
small  coat  for  her  grandchild.  There  had  been  a 
conversation  between  them  which  it  may  be  worth 
recording,  and  Teresa  arrived  at  a  critical  moment. 
Susie's  knitting  was  a  curious  performance,  and 
David,  sadly  at  a  loss  for  an  occupation  while  he 
waited  for  Teresa,  had  watched  it  and  wondered  in 
what  way  it  differed  from  his  mother's.  Lady 
Varens  at  work  with  needles  suggested  Penelope 
filling  in  time  to  avert  the  intrusion  of  emotions. 
Susie  evidently  undertook  the  thing  as  part  of  the 
equipment  of  a  role.  It  was  like  all  household 
affairs  performed  by  stage  characters,  the  dusting 
of  a  room  by  a  saucy  maid  who  flicks  the  mantelpiece 
twice  and  then  gets  on  with  her  lines,  the  dinner- 
party where  everything  is  swept  away  after  the  first 
morsel  of  fish  has  been  tasted.  Susie's  knitting  was 
the  "  business  "  connected  with  the  role  of  "  Mrs. 
Fulton  ;  beautiful,  refined,  well-dressed,  awaiting 
the  eventide  of  life  with  the  calm  philosophy  of  one 
who  has  known  much  suffering."  She  was  now 
"  discovered  seated,  centre  R.f.,  expecting  the 
return  of  her  husband,  a  typical  twentieth  century 
rake." 

"  You  do  a  great  deal  of  knitting,  don't  you  ?  " 
David  remarked  at  last. 

"  Not  as  much  as  I  should  like,"  said  Susie.  "  I 
hope  that  when  you  and  Dicky  are  married  you  will 
encourage  her  to  do  something  of  that  kind  in  the 
evening.  If  she  is  giving  up  all  her  other  work  she 
will  need  something  to  take  its  place.  You  don't 
sing  or  play  at  all,  do  you  ?  " 

"  No,"  he  said,  feeling  some  apology  was  needed, 
"  I  don't." 


322  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

"  I  almost  think  I  should  take  up  some  interest  if 
I  were  you,"  she  said  gently.  "  Of  course  there  is 
no  doubt  that  there  is  no  happiness  like  being 
married  if  people  understand  each  other,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  need  for 
change  of  thought  sometimes.  You  are  not  fond 
of  wine,  are  you,  David  ?  " 

"  No,  not  at  odd  times,  thanks  very  much,"  David 
replied.  He  was  mildly  startled  by  the  question 
and  wondered  what  she  was  driving  at. 

"  And  no  more  is  Dicky.  She  never  cared  for  it 
at  all,  and  yet  Evangeline  would  always  take  a  glass 
when  it  was  offered  her.  It  gives  people  quite  a 
different  outlook.  I  don't  know  how  far  you  have 
studied  Dicky's  character  but  I  understand  her,  in  a 
way,  better  than  Evangeline.  Dicky  takes  a  much 
wider  view  of  spiritual  things." 

"  Yes,  I  expect  so,"  said  David,  polite  and  non- 
committal. 

"  And  just  for  that  reason  I  am  a  little  sad  at 
her  giving  up  all  her  work  among  the  poor.  I  am 
afraid  she  will  feel  the  want  of  it."  David  was 
struck  dumb,  so  she  went  on,  supposing  his  silence 
to  be  due  to  a  wish  to  hear  more.  "  She  has  no 
artistic  interests,  you  see.  When  I  was  her  age  I 
had  a  great  many.  I  was  devoted  to  music,  for 
instance,  and  if  I  had  not  fallen  in  love  with  my 
husband  the  course  of  my  life  might  have  been 
quite  different.  I  hope  you  will  forgive  these  little 
bits  of  personal  history,  dear  David,  but  I  should  be 
so  glad  if  they  helped  you  in  any  way  to  clear  up 
difficulties  that  may  come  when  the  '  first  fine 
careless  rapture,'  as  I  heard  it  described  the  other 
day  at  a  wonderful  lecture  of  Professor  Gaskie's — I 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  323 

thought  of  you  two  at  once — when  that  is  over.  I 
felt  it  so  much  when  I  had  to  give  up  all  that  side 
of  things  when  I  married.  You  see  my  husband  has 
his  wine,  for  instance,  and  his  men  ;  he  had  a  great 
number  of  old  friends  when  we  first  married,  whom  I 
must  say,  I  thought  extremely  uninteresting.  They 
talked  by  the  hour  about  foxes ;  not  in  connection 
with  all  the  beautiful  country  life  that  you  have,  for 
he  never  hunted  except  when  he  was  asked  to  stay 
with  people,  but  they  were  always  talking  about 
that  kind  of  thing.  Some  of  them  were  purely 
politicians  and  some  very  much  worse.  Not  the 
old  intellectual  type  like  Disraeli,  who  really  cared 
for  beautiful  things,  but  the  sort  who  run  away 
from  a  drawing-room  and  hide  themselves  somewhere 
with  decanters  and  laugh  and  roar  and  sing  half  the 
night.  I  can't  tell  you  how  much  I  used  to  feel 
the  want  of  something  else.  Then  the  children 
came,  and  of  course  it  was  all  right,  and  I  had 
friends  who  were  very  kind,  so  that  I  could  go 
now  and  then  and  hear  music  and  talk  about  the 
things  I  cared  for.  That  is  why  I  have  taken  up 
the  work  I  do  here.  It  is  not  an  intellectual  place, 
as  you  see  ;  and  those  concerts  !  Have  you  ever 
been  to  them  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sometimes,"  said  David.  "  I  thought  they 
were  supposed  to  be  rather  good." 

"  The  performers  are  often  very  good,"  she  agreed, 
"  but  there  is  an  atmosphere  about  the  place  that 
I  don't  like  ;  a  want  of  appreciation.  Have  you 
noticed  that  there  is  often  quite  a  fog  in  the  hall  ?  I 
have  wondered  sometimes  whether  it  was  anything 
like  what  Professor  Bole  was  describing  the  other 
day.  I  forget  how  he  put  it,  but  I  thought  of  those 


324  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

concerts  and  wondered  whether  people's  tastes — 
their  love  of  rich  dinners  and  wine  and  all  that,  had 
been  chased  out  of  them  by  the  music  and  was 
wanting  to  get  back  and  preventing  them  from 
hearing  if  fully.  Dear  little  Dicky  used  to  find  the 
fog  in  the  town  so  depressing  when  we  first  came, 
and  I  expect  she  felt  the  same  as  I  do.  Now 
Evangeline  is  different  altogether,  more  like  her 
father.  She  will  throw  off  anything  of  that  sort 
in  a  minute  and  be  all  ready  for  a  gallop  or  a  dance 
or  party.  Haven't  you  noticed  that  ?  And  yet 
I  always  think  any  art  is  such  a  happy  thing.  One 

has  no  real  need  of  other  people "  Her  knitting 

had  gone  down  on  to  her  lap  long  ago. 

"  No,  perhaps  not,"  said  David. 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  think  so,"  she  continued  in 
her  purry  voice.  "  For  of  course,  you  will  be  a  great 
deal  cut  off  in  the  country.  What  is  that  Mrs.  Lake 
like  whom  I  used  to  meet  now  and  then  ?  She 
seemed  to  have  quite  taken  up  the  Prices.  She  is 
very  typical  of  the  society  round  there,  isn't 
she  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  much  about  her,"  said  David. 
"  But  I  believe  she  is  all  right." 

"  Dicky  will  find  friends,  of  course,"  said  Susie. 
"  One  can  always  find  some  good  in  everybody  if 
one  is  prepared  to  look  for  it." 

"  Yes,  I  don't  think  there  will  be  any  difficulty," 
said  David. 

"  What  do  you  think  about  Evan  going  into  this 
business  of  Mr.  Price's  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  It  ought  to  be  quite  easy  I  think,"  he  answered. 
"  It  is  what  he  likes." 

"  Yes,  but  Evan  does  like  such  curious  things," 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  325 

said  Susie.  "  His  is  a  most  interesting  nature  ;  so 
upright ;  but  I  often  wonder  how  Evangeline,  with 
her  very  sunny  disposition,  chose  anyone  with  such 
very  strong  religious  views.  Religion  always  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  thing  that  should  be  so  helpful  in 
making  it  easier  to  stand  up  against  things  that  go 
wrong.  One  sees  so  much  suffering  in  a  place  like 
this  that  unless  one  can  be  sure  that  it  is  all  intended 
and  for  the  best,  one  would  be  inclined  to  dwell  too 
much  on  it.  Now  Evan,  it  seems  to  me,  instead  of 
seeing  it  like  that,  often  makes  it  sadder  by  supposing 
things  to  be  worse  than  they  are.  He  used  to  take  the 
gloomiest  view  of  poor  little  Ivor  in  his  childish 
naughtiness,  though  he  is  really  a  good  little  boy 
and  very  obedient  if  one  just  smooths  over  difficulties 
with  a  little  tact.  Nurse  is  not  always  very  wise 
with  him.  She  goes  on  persisting  at  the  time, 
instead  of  waiting  until  he  has  forgotten  and  letting 
him  do  whatever  it  is  of  his  own  accord,  when  he  is 
interested  in  something  else.  That  is  Evan's 
mistake  I  am  sure.  He  is  always  on  the  look  out 
for  sad  things  and  it  makes  him  so  difficult  to  interest. 
Now  my  husband  is  all  the  other  way.  He  won't 
believe  that  anything  matters,  and  I  think  that 
Evangeline  is  rather  like  him.  They  have  no 
sympathy  for  any  aims  beyond  the  present.  Do 
you  know  Mrs.  Vachell  well  ?  " 

"  Not  very,"  David  replied. 

"  Do  you  like  her  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  she  wants  people  to  either  like  or 
dislike  her,  so  I  haven't  got  so  far,"  he  said.  He 
would  have  been  candid  with  Teresa  or  Evangeline 
or  many  other  people,  but  he  had  a  deep-rooted 
distrust  of  Susie  as  a  receptacle  for  words.  They 


326  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

meant  so  little  to  her  that  she  was  liable  to  pass 
them  on  as  coinage  in  conversation  and  give  no 
goods  of  her  own  in  exchange,  so  there  was  no 
bargain  that  she  was  likely  to  respect  between  her 
and  whoever  she  talked  to.  He  felt  this  instinctively 
and  had  no  dealings  with  her,  not  being  willing,  like 
Cyril,  to  declare  himself  bankrupt  for  the  joy  of 
riotous  living. 

"  She  believes  very  much  in  women,"  Susie  went 
on.  "  Her  idea  is  that  some  day  all  those  things 
that  I  was  talking  about,  the  love  of  finer  tastes 
and  of  children,  and  all  the  confidence  and  dislike 
of  harshness  and  ugliness  that  woman  feels  so  much 
will  come  more  to  the  front  and  have  more  influence. 
There  may  be  something  in  it,  for  although  I  dislike 
the  idea  of  women  going  into  the  world,  still,  if  they 
can  do  any  good  I  am  sure  it  is  right  for  them  not 
to  hold  back  ;  for  the  sake  of  the  unmarried  ones 
who  have  to  earn  a  living.  It  does  seem  terrible, 
don't  you  think,  that  there  should  be  no  way  for 
those  who  are  not  intellectual  to  live  except  by 
pleasing  men  in  the  wrong  way  ;  because  that  is 
what  it  comes  to,  whether  they  are  married  or  not. 
And  if  they  are  not  good  looking  it  is  even  worse. 
They  ought  to  be  as  well  paid  for  cultivating  the 
higher  side  of  life  as  for  pandering  to  the  lower. 
A  loving  nature  is  of  as  much  value  to  the  world 
as  a  brain  that  invents  war  material ;  and,  as  it 
is,  men  only  use  it  as  a  toy  for  every  sort  of  coarser 
instinct." 

"  But  does  Mrs.  Vachell  suggest  a  sort  of  spiritual 
— market  ?  "  David  asked,  hesitatingly,  roused  at 
last  out  of  his  burrow  by  the  logical  enticements 
that  Susie  had  been  aiming  at  him.  "  Aren't 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  327 

there  enough  people  who  sell  themselves  in  that  way 
already  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  you  have  quite  understood  my 
point,  dear  David,"  she  replied,  and  at  that  moment 
Teresa  came  in  and  found  them. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

TERESA  and  Joseph  Price  were  going  back  to  Mill- 
port  together  in  the  rickety^  little  train  that  joggled 
up  and  down  the  coast  every  few  hours.  Teresa  had 
spent  the  day  with  the  Varens'  and  Joseph  had  called 
about  tea  time  with  some  information  from  his  father 
for  Evangeline  about  her  husband's  new  work. 
Evan  was  expected  in  about  ten  days,  and  was  to 
take  up  his  work  at  first  under  Mr.  Price's  own  eye 
before  being  entrusted  with  the  final  appointment 
at  a  distance.  Joseph  and  Teresa  were  each  occupied 
in  trying  to  hold  an  evening  paper  still  enough  in  the 
dim  light  to  read  the  last  news  of  a  riot  that  had 
broken  out  in  the  Midlands  over  a  labour  dispute. 
They  had  hardly  deciphered  more  than  a  few  lines 
when  the  train  wriggled  itself  to  a  standstill,  and  Mr. 
Fisk  junior  jumped  into  the  carriage.  He  threw 
himself  down  in  a  corner  and  took  some  papers  from 
his  pocket  and  then  recognised  his  companions. 
"  How  do  you  do  ?  "  said  Teresa.  "  I  don't  think 
you  can  see  anything  by  this  lamp.  We  were  trying 
to  read  a  paper,  but  it  is  no  good." 

"  How  d'  you  do,  Fisk  ?  "  said  Joseph.  "  Been 
playing  golf  down  here  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  Fisk,  frowning.  "  What  I  have 
been  doing  is  a  game  to  some  but  deadly  earnest  to 
others.  If  it  ends  in  bloodshed  the  responsibility 
will  lie  with  those  who  treated  it  as  a  game."  He 

328 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  329 

settled  himself  into  his  corner  and  glared  at 
Teresa. 

"  Kait  sairysly,  though,  Fisk,  what  d'  you  think 
of  this  ?  "  Joseph  asked,  tapping  his  paper.  "  D' 
you  think  it  '11  come  t'  anything,  what  ?  " 

"  It  has  come  to  something  already,"  said  Fisk, 
"  as  you  will  find  if  you  study  your  newspaper.  And 
it  will  come  to  something  that  you  have  not  yet 
experienced,  the  search  for  a  crust  of  bread  by  those 
who  have  treated  the  misery  of  their  fellow  creatures 
as  a  game." 

'  Yes,  but  you  know,  that  won't  do  any  good," 
said  Joseph.  "  Somebody's  got  t'  hold  the  purse, 
or  the  money  's  bound  to  get  lost.  That's  been 
gone  into  pretty  thoroughly.  You  and  I  can't  decide 
the  thing  'n  a  railway  carriage,  like  this.  Now  I'll 
tell  you  a  thing  's  an  instance.  My  father,  the  other 
day,  was  thinking  of  buying  a  big  place — since  you've 
turned  us  out — "  he  added  politely  to  Teresa,  "  and 
I  said  t'  him, '  Don't.  I  don't  want  the  thing.  In  a 
year  or  two's  time  we  shan't  have  a  soul  left  t'  talk 
to.  All  the  filers  we  know  will  be  in  trade  or  driving 
their  own  engines  and  so  on,  and  the  people  at  the 
top  will  be  the  sort  that  nobody  c'n  ask  out  and  all 
that.  'T's  abs'lutely  not  done,'  I  said, '  't's  played 
out.'  Th'  only  thing  t'  do  now,  'f  you  want  to  be 
in  it,  is  t'  cover  yourself  with  grease  and  get  up  at 
th'  most  ungodly  hours.  Th'  old  aristocracy  won't 
look  at  you  if  you  offer  them  a  really  decent  dinner. 
At  my  club  th'  other  day,  I  met  a  filer  ordering  tripe 
and  onions  ;  't's  a  fact." 

"  Oh,  don't  be  so  stupid,"  said  Teresa  angrily. 

'  You  can't  always  go  on  shifting  from  one  branch 

to  another  as  soon  as  anyone  else  sits  down  on  yours. 


330  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

All  people  want  is  to  be  let  alone  to  do  anything  they 
are  able  to  do,  and  it  is  snobbery  like  yours  that 
makes  it  impossible." 

"  No,  no,  really,  I  assure  you,"  Joseph  protested. 
"  That's  not  Fisk's  idea,  I'm  sure,  is  it  ?  "  He 
appealed  to  the  indignant  spectacled  form  opposite. 
"  What  ?  I  heard  about  you  th'  other  day,  you 
know.  I  was  down  canv'ssing  your  way  for  my 
father  and  turned  up  't  your  house.  Your  father 
gave  us  his  vote — 't's  a  fact,  abs'lutely — because  he 
said  he  was  f'd  up  with  socialism.  '  My  son's  one 
of  them,'  he  said, '  and  he  won't  work,  and  he  objects 
t'  me  and  my  wife  working.'  Now  there's  snobb'ry 
for  you  'f  you  like,  I  think,  what  ?  I'm  willing  t' 
associate  with  people  who  won't  associate  with 
themselves.  What  are  you  t'  do  ?  " 

"  My  father  knows  nothing  about  economic 
questions,"  said  Fisk,  with  dignity.  "  He  has  been 
ground  down  to  the  level  he  is  at  now,  but  he  has 
never  been  below  into  the  pit  from  which  a  class 
must  either  become  submerged  or  rise  above  the 
one  that  is  holding  it  down.  They  may  rise  through 
blood " 

"  Oh,  do  stop,  Mr.  Fisk,"  Teresa  implored  him, 
"  I  believe  England  got  on  a  lot  better  when  people 
only  argued  at  elections  and  went  on  with  things 
in  between.  But  look  here.  Will  you  tell  me  what 
you  get  paid  for  stopping  people  working  and  I  will 
find  you  something  to  do  where  you  shall  get  the 
same  for  being  of  some  use.  I  have  promised  to 
find  someone  who  will  give  their  whole  time  to 
doing  properly  what  I  did  so  badly  in  scraps  for 
Miss  Gainsborough.  You  have  had  an  education 
which  I  haven't,  and  you  have  much  longer  legs " 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  331 

"  No,  pardon  me,  I  don't  approve  of  palliative 
methods,"  said  Mr.  Fisk. 

"  Well,  you  won't  argue  any  more  till  we  get 
out,  will  you  ?  "  asked  Teresa.  "  How  are  the 
dormice  ?  " 

He  launched  into  the  subject  with  enthusiasm. 
He  forsaw  a  great  future  for  dormice  in  the  field  of 
knowledge  when  their  habits  had  been  studied 
more.  After  he  got  out  at  the  next  station  Joseph 
remarked  : 

"  Kerious  sort  of  filer,  isn't  he  ?  Typical  of  a 
kind  that's  dying  out,  I  b'lieve.  In  a  year  or  two 
you'll  find  that  sort  of  thing'll  hardly  be  done  at  all. 
Abs'lutely  the  latest  thing  already  is  t'  work  at 
something  and  it'll  come  in,  you'll  find,  and  then 
everybody'll  want  to  do  it  for  a  bit.  Fisk'll  be  as 
jealous  as  poss'ble  when  he  finds  someone  else  has 
collared  his  little  shovel  and  his  paint  pot  and  all 
that,  and  that  there  isn't  any  loose  money  about  to 
pay  him  for  talking.  It's  a  very  kerious  thing  how 
'n  idea  gets  out  'f  date.  I  don't  know  if  you're 
interested  in  morals  and  all  that  ?  " 

"  Go  on,"  said  Teresa,  "  I  shall  be  grateful  if  you 
will  make  me  really  cross  with  you." 

"  How's  that  ?  "  inquired  Joseph. 

"  It  is  like  a  sneeze  that  won't  come  off — but  never 
mind  ;  you  have  worked  me  up  into  an  explosion 
sometimes.  What  were  you  going  to  say  ?  " 

"  I  said  I  didn't  know  if  you  are  int'rested  in 
morals  ;  because  I  b'lieve  very  strongly  that  illicit 
love  affairs  and  all  that  sort  'f  thing's  going  t'  be 
frightfully  stale,  what  ?  Don't  you  think  so  ?  Of 
course  it'll  go  on  happ'ning  ;  you  can't  prevent  it ; 
but  people  will  have  t'  run  the  risk  of  being  thought 


332  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

middle  class.  I'm  fairf'Uy  bored  with  th'  idea  of 
sex,  myself,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  No,  I  must  say  I  am  glad  there  are  two,"  said 
Teresa.  "  But  then  I  am '  fairf 'lly  bored,'  as  you  call  it, 
with  the  idea  of  anything  being  '  middle-class.'  Per- 
haps that  is  newer  still.  I  hope  not  for  your  sake. 
However,  in  the  meantime  I  am  ever  so  grateful 
for  what  you  have  done  for  Evan.  My  sister  is 
so  happy  about  having  him  back  and  that  he  is 
going  to  do  something  he  will  like  so  awfully. 
I  hope  it  won't  bore  your  father,  having  him 
there." 

"  Oh  no,  my  father's  never  bored,"  said  Joseph. 
"  That's  really  th'  thing  about  him  that  bores  me 
sometimes,  'f  you  know  what  I  mean." 

The  train  stopped  for  the  last  time  and  Teresa 
got  out  into  the  brightly-lit  station.  Outside  it 
there  was  semi-darkness,  and  the  mud  dripping  im- 
perceptibly. Along  the  slimy  pavements  three  or 
four  of  the  little  boys  to  whom  she  had  ladled  out 
hot-pot  and  plum-pudding  ran  to  and  fro,  shouting 
the  latest  news.  " — c'lock  '  Echo ' — special  edi — 
shun !  six-o'clock — '  Echo  ' — 'clock — edi — shun  ! 
'  Echo  ' — riots — in — Blankshire  —  forty-seven — per- 
sons— injured  !  '  Echo ' — edi — shun — serious-riot- 
ing— in  Midland — town — forty-seven — 'ere  you  are, 

sir. — 'clock — '  Echo ' "  and  away  he  sped.  "  I 

wonder  if  he  has  got  any  awfullness  buttoned  into 
his  waistcoat  for  Grannie  to-night,"  thought  Teresa, 

"  or  whether  she  died .  Shall  I  ever  be  able  to 

stand  knowing  that  '  Grannie  '  and  the  waistcoat 
are  there  and  I  am  with  David,  and  not  doing 
anything  ?  " 

"  I  met  Joseph  Price  to-day,"  she  said  to  her  father 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  333 

when  she  got  home.  "  He  has  really  been  very  good 
about  Evan.  I  believe  he  invented  the  whole  idea 
himself.  Mr.  Price  seems  suspicious  about  it  and 
wants  to  have  Evan  at  the  works  here  first,  to  make 
sure  that  he  is  all  right.  David  says  he  is  quite  sure 
that  he  is  in  fact  what  is  wanted,  and  there  won't  be 
any  difficulty,  as  he  keeps  on  saying,  but  how  Joseph 
knew,  or  why  he  took  the  trouble,  I  can't  imagine. 
He  is  such  an  absolute  ass  and  yet  he  seems  to  pick 
up  ideas  and  he  makes  the  old  man  do  just  what  he 
likes.  He  is  also  the  greatest  snob  and  time-server, 
and  yet  he  will  do  anything  or  go  anywhere  for  any- 
body for  no  reason.  Fisk  was  in  the  train,  raving 
about  blood  as  usual,  and  Joseph  said  he  was  going 
to  ask  him  to  stay  for  a  week-end  and  meet  some  of 
the  people  who  are  coming  down  about  the  election. 
Joseph  will  sit  there  quite  undisturbed  by  his  family 
and  get  any  amount  of  amusement  out  of  the  flutter- 
ing in  the  dovecot  there  will  be,  and  Lady  Varens 
says  that  Mrs.  Lake — the  select  Mrs.  Lake — thinks 
he  would  make  a  nice  son-in-law.  She  thought 
that  he  liked  Lady  Angela  Brackenbury  who  started 
the  inn,  the  Star  and  Garter.  They  wanted  to  have 
the  Duke's  Star  and  Garter  framed  as  a  sign  outside. 
I  am  getting  so  muddled  with  them  all.  I  couldn't 
go  and  live  there  if  it  weren't  for  David.  Joseph 
told  me  he  was  bored  with  sex,  so  I  suppose,  as  he 
can't  find  anything  newer  than  a  woman  to  marry,  it 
won't  be  either  of  them  and  the  Price  money  will 
have  to  go  to  anyone  who  marries  the  girls  after 
Joseph  has  lolled  about  on  it  enough.  It  is  dis- 
tracting to  ravel  out." 

"  You've  got  an  abnormal  love  of  the  social  order," 
said  Cyril.     "  You'd  much  better  leave  it  alone 


334  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

and  concentrate  on  your  man.  He'll  repay  it  with 
far  more  gratitude." 

"  I  don't  want  gratitude,"  she  said.  "  It  is  just 
the  Lady  Bountiful  idea  that  has  annoyed  me 
from  the  beginning.  I  want  to  feel  one  of  a  colossal 
family,  that's  all ;  not  to  be  the  housekeeper  in  the 
store  cupboard  or  a  cow  being  milked." 

"  Then  you  must  put  up  with  poor  relations,  and 
they're  always  a  damned  nuisance,"  said  Cyril. 
"  Your  mother  had  a  great  love  of  humanity,  she 
said,  but  her  idea  was  more  to  be  the  head  of  a 
family  of  her  own  than  to  be  mixed  up  in  a  general 
one.  Gad  !  she  used  to  rope  them  in,  too  !  I 
never  saw  anything  like  it.  And  nothing  about  it  of 
a  grosser  nature,  like  your  friend  Joseph.  All  pure, 
unadulterated  love.  It's  a  wonderful  gift."  He 
was  lost  in  retrospect. 

"  Where  have  you  wandered  off  to  ?  "  she  asked 
in  perplexity.  "  Mother  had  only  two  of  us  and  you 
said  once  that  she  wasn't  in  love  with  you.  I  have 
thought  over  that  sometimes,  and  I  think  you  must 
be  wrong.  I  don't  mean  to  say  you  oughtn't  to 
have  said  it,  because  I  don't  want  nasty  things 
covered  up  ;  I  want  them  not  to  happen.  But  you 
were  probably  talking  to  the  gallery  that  time, 
weren't  you  ?  People  forget.  Evan  forgot  a  lot 
of  things  that  Chips  remembered  afterwards." 

"  I  wasn't  thinking  about  anything  at  all  nasty," 
Cyril  replied.  "  There's  nothing  wrong  with  the 
instinct  of  the  nesting  season,  and  the  number  of 
eggs  laid  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  selection 
of  a  mate  has  also  been  sung  by  poets,  so  I  have 
every  right  to  use  the  comparison  without  being 
blamed  by  you.  Chips  is  another  of  you  loving 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  335 

ladies,"  he  went  on.  "  That  makes  three  of  you. 
What  a  trio  for  one  man  to  keep  under  the  same 
roof  !  No  wonder  that  I  give  way  sometimes." 

"  Chips  loves  the  sun,  with  people  thrown  in  as 
something  that  hatches  out  under  it,  I  think,"  said 
Teresa.  "  There's  not  much  actual  family  about  it 
—though  Ivor — goodness !  You  talk  of  birds ! 
That  is  nothing  to  her.  Do  you  know,  I  think  she 
imagined  she  had  hatched  out  the  whole  of  creation 
at  once  when  Ivor  was  born.  And  now  she  lives  in 
him  in  a  way,  and  doesn't  mind  how  independent 
he  is.  She  never  wants  to  hold  on  to  him  or  push 
him  this  way  or  that,  like  some  mothers  do.  She 
forgets  so  easily  what  other  people  think,  so  long 
as  they  don't  make  obstacles  and  set  them  up  in 
front  of  her." 

"  I  daresay,"  said  Cyril.  "  Your  sex  amuse  me 
very  much,  and  I  am  very  fond  of  a  great  many  of 
you.  But  I  wish  you  didn't  all  think  so  much.  It 
keeps  one  for  ever  tripping  about  for  fear  of  disturb- 
ing a  valued  plan.  That's  a  thing  I  detested  during 
the  war,  having  to  make  arrangements.  You  see 
a  thing  to  do  and  you  do  it  or  don't.  That's  the 
only  reasonable  way." 

About  a  fortnight  later  Evangeline  went  to  London 
to  meet  Evan.  They  were  to  stay  there  for  a  few 
days  while  he  went  to  see  Mr.  Price's  engineering 
works.  They  were  then  to  take  rooms  in  Millport 
until  after  Teresa's  wedding,  and  make  arrange- 
ments for  the  future.  There  was  not  much  money 
to  spare  for  the  moment,  and  Susie  had  urged 
Evangeline  to  economise  by  staying  with  them  until 
Evan  began  to  receive  his  new  income.  But  the 
sisters'  decided  between  themselves  that  the  sugges- 


336  THREE  LOVING   LADIES 

tion  held  too  many  risks.  "  He  does  so  hate  being 
looked  at,"  Evangeline  had  said,  at  the  conclusion 
of  her  remarks  on  the  subject  in  Teresa's  bedroom 
one  night. 

"  There  is  too  much  of  what  Father  calls  '  damned 
noticing  '  in  this  family,  isn't  there  ?  "  said  Teresa. 
"  And  yet  Mother  never  tells  you  she  has  seen  any- 
thing ;  she  only  points  out  what  someone  else  has 
seen.  And  Father  never  seems  to  see  anything 
unless  you  ask  him,  and  I  don't  spy  round,  but  still 
I  understand.  I  should  hate  not  to  be  away  with 
David.  I  am  so  glad  we  are  going  away  into 
another  continent  before  we  end  up  among  neigh- 
bours." 

"  But  this  isn't  a  honeymoon,  so  it  ought  not  to 
matter,"  said  Evangeline.  "  But  I  know  you  will 
all  look  so  nervous  if  we  disagree,  and  since  the 
Vachell  episode  I  feel  that  Evan  will  suspect  the 
devil  in  every  female  eye  he  sees  for  a  long  time." 

"  Mrs.  Vachell  is  the  only  person  I  know  from 
whom  I  feel  absolutely  cut  off,"  said  Teresa.  "  I 
don't  mean  since  the  episode,  but  always.  You 
and  I  have  thought  she  wasn't  human,  but  that  is 
not  true.  She  is  fond — I  mean  fond  really — of  that 
little  Vachell.  He  fainted  one  day  at  his  lecture 
and  was  brought  home  in  a  cab  ;  I  don't  know  if  I 
ever  told  you  ;  and  I  happened  to  be  there.  She 
didn't  say  anything  hardly,  but  you  can't  mistake. 
That  is  all  I  know  about  her.  I  think  from  some- 
thing she  said  once  that  her  father  ill-treated  her 
mother,  but  I  am  not  sure.  If  you  had  left  Evan 
I  have  an  idea  she  would  have  carried  the  luggage- 
taken  the  blame  and  all  that — and  you  would  have 
kept  Ivor  even  if  she  had  to  seduce  Evan  and  all 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  337 

the  jury,  so  if  you  come  to  principles !  She 

would  have  been  burnt  in  the  Middle  Ages  and 
Evan  would  have  burnt  her  and  been  burnt  himself. 
Isn't  it  a  mercy  there  is  nothing  worse  than  Fisk  to 
make  opinions  unpleasant  in  this  country."  The 
hour  was  very  late  and  honest  Robert's  footsteps 
could  be  heard  coming  down  the  street.  "  Certainly 
no  ;  certainly  not,"  they  said.  But  neither  Teresa 
nor  Evangeline  was  aware  of  him.  "  But  I  don't 
know  her  in  the  very  least,"  Teresa  added. 

"  I  was  a  fool,"  said  Evangeline,  reflecting.  "  As 
if  it  mattered  !  " 

"  As  if  what  mattered  ?  " 

"  Whether  Evan  understood  either  her  or  me. 
Things  come  out  in  the  wash.  But  it  would  be  nice 
to  live  with  someone  whom  one  could  say  just  any- 
thing to,  instead  of  only  being  in  love  with  them, 
wouldn't  it  ?  But  I  suppose  that  hardly  ever 
happens." 

Teresa  didn't  answer. 

A  day  arrived  when  Evangeline  stood  waiting  for 
the  train  that  was  to  bring  Evan.  She  was  shivering 
and  impatient,  like  a  swimmer  about  to  dive  on  a 
rough  day  ;  anticipating  the  joy  of  achievement  and 
the  thrill  after  stale  security,  but  aware  also  of 
what  would  happen  if  she  failed.  The  noise  of  the 
station  was  deafening ;  other  trains  came  in,  dis- 
charging crowds  that  pushed  past  her  in  their  search 
for  relatives  and  luggage.  An  engine  let  off  steam 
close  behind  her  and  then  thudded  and  puffed 
interminably,  it  seemed,  until  the  noise  added  to 
her  nervousness  and  the  smell  of  smoke  and  the 
pushing  of  unlovely  strangers  gave  her  an  utter 
revulsion  against  the  thought  of  contending  with 


338  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

Evan's  sunlessness.  She  forgot  everything  except 
the  weariness  of  contention.  All  of  a  sudden  the 
platform  was  magically  clear  except  for  a  line  of 
porters  drawn  up  at  intervals  along  it.  The  engine 
was  still  screeching  somewhere  near  and  now  a 
second  one  appeared  before  her  in  a  rush  of  smoke 
and  noise.  The  powerful  movement  of  the  axle, 
bringing  the  inexorable  moment,  was  the  only  thing 
she  noticed,  and  then  she  was  fairly  in  the  crowd, 
trying  to  remember  what  Evan  looked  like.  She 
caught  sight  of  him  at  last,  standing  a  little  apart, 
with  a  drawn,  chilly  expression  of  disappointment. 
She  ran  up  to  him,  pushing  porters  and  passengers 

out  of  her  way  and  caught  his  arm.     "  Here " 

she  said  breathlessly,  "  I'm  here — I  couldn't  find 
you  for  ages."  He  smiled,  and  she  began  to  feel 
less  at  the  mercy  of  events.  He  said  something 
not  very  distinctly,  that  was  drowned  in  a  blast 
from  the  engine.  She  made  a  sign  to  him  to  look 
for  his  luggage,  and  after  a  time  they  drove  away  to 
the  hotel.  Poor  Evan  felt  as  though  he  had  been 
washed  ashore  right  into  his  own  home  after  a  ship- 
wreck. He  wanted  to  hear  everything,  to  pick  up 
lost  threads  of  small  events ;  to  hear  about  this 
new  job,  and  Teresa's  marriage.  Evangeline  found 
plenty  to  talk  about  over  their  meal,  but  she  was 
conscious  all  the  time  of  the  strength  of  the  sea  and 
that  she  would  have  to  swim  again  presently.  She 
longed  for  a  sunny  beach  and  warm  blue  ripples  with 
no  danger  lurking  in  them.  She  was  tired  with 
excitement,  and  all  her  natural  distaste  for  effort 
oppressed  her  with  a  wish  that  the  man  she  loved 
were  in  charge  of  the  situation,  and  not  she.  She 
wanted  to  bask  in  the  certainty  that  nothing  she 


THREE  LOVING  LADIES  339 

could  say  would  matter,  and  yet  she  knew  that  his 
face  might  cloud  at  any  moment  and  become  chilled 
by  a  chance  slip  of  her  speech. 

The  story  ends  at  the  Fultons'  house  a  few  weeks 
after  this.  Luncheon  was  over  and  Cyril  had  poured 
himself  out  a  glass  of  port  and  pushed  the  decanter 
towards  Evan.  The  Hattons  were  to  leave  Millport 
in  ten  days  after  Teresa's  wedding  and  move  into 
their  new  home.  Even  Mr.  Price  was  satisfied  that 
there  was  no  hanky-panky  about  the  appointment 
his  son  had  made,  and  Evan's  prospects  were  bright. 
He  and  Evangeline  had  been  to  lunch  and  the 
children  were  to  go  afterwards  for  a  drive  with  Susie. 
David  was  also  there. 

"  Well,  here's  luck,"  said  Cyril.  "  Luck  to 
marriage  and  all  it  may  mean  to  a  girl.  Isn't  that 
it,  Sue  ?  " 

"  I  will  drink  the  health  in  my  cup  of  coffee,  I 
think,  dear,"  said  Susie.  "  Hadn't  you  better  send 
the  wine  down  to  this  end  of  the  table  ?  David  may 
like  to  reply  with  some  idea  that  is  a  little  brighter." 

"  I  am  not  sure  that  I  won't  drink  Mrs.  Potter's 
health,"  said  David.  "  May  I,  Dicky  ?  " 

"  Yes,  do,"  she  said  eagerly.  "  And  you  do 
really  mean  it,  don't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  of  course  I  do,"  he  answered.  "  Where's 
the  difficulty  ?  " 

"  No,  there  isn't  any,  I  know,"  said  Teresa.  The 
door  was  pushed  gently  open  and  Ivor  came  in. 
Nurse  stood  in  the  doorway  holding  young  Susan. 

"  I  shall  be  ready  in  about  twenty  minutes,"  said 
Susie.  "  I  must  be  at  the  bank  before  it  shuts. 
Would  you  like  to  walk  up  and  down  a  little,  in  the 


340  THREE  LOVING  LADIES 

garden,  Nurse,  and  get  what  sun  there  is  till  the  car 
comes  ?  " 

The  little  party  went  out  and  Evan  got  up  to 
watch  them  from  the  window.  "  How  they  do  wrap 
that  child  up,"  he  observed  to  Evangeline.  "  Just 
look  at  the  forest  of  shawls  in  that  thing.  I  am 
sure  it  is  not  good  for  her." 

"  Oh,  Evan,"  she  said,  wincing,  "  please,  please 
don't  begin  over  again.  You  may  find  the  wheel 
of  the  perambulator  is  loose  or  something,"  she 
added  hastily,  to  make  her  request  sound  like  a 
kindly  ioke.  She  opened  the  window  to  say  some- 
thing to  the  nurse,  and  Strickland,  who  had  come 
out  into  the  garden,  intoxicated  with  the  atmosphere 
of  nuptial  gaiety,  was  heard  carolling  to  the  baby,  as 
she  pushed  the  perambulator  up  and  down  : 

"  It's  a — long,  long  trail  a — winding 
Unto  the — land  of — my  dreams — 

"  I  always  think  that  is  so  true,"  said  Susie  with 
a  little  sigh. 


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